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It’s hard to find many accredited evaluators willing to say publicly that Clemson’s Trevor Lawrence isn’t QB’s best prospect in the 2021 NFL Draft.
But we found one that ain’t even Lawrence has one of them better QB prospects this year.
June Jones, former head coach of the Atlanta Falcons and San Diego Chargers, watched many of the best quarterbacks available for the 2021 NFL Draft. He hasn’t seen them all. But he saw enough of Lawrence to be less enamored with the overwhelming favorite in the overall No.1 pick to know that if it was Jones’ choice there, he would be making other plans.
“Hey, I like it. But I wouldn’t take it with the first pick, though,” Jones told Yahoo Sports by phone from his home in Honolulu. “Everyone says he’s the one-man guy. But I would trade that pick and take one of those other quarterbacks down the line.”
The two quarters he prefers? Well, one is now almost a household name – at least among those who were involved in the NFL drafting process. BYU’s Zach Wilson, who could be the New York Jets’ second overall pick, is higher in his pecking order than Lawrence.
But Wilson is not Jones’ No.1 prospect in QB this year. He’s got the Mac Jones from Alabama in mind.
We had follow-up questions on Lawrence, Wilson and Jones. And he had answers.
What could hold Trevor Lawrence back
We asked Jones: Why is he so (relatively) low on Lawrence?
“He’s a very talented kid, don’t get me wrong, and I think he’s a winner,” Jones said. “He can do things other quarterbacks can’t, like running.
“But what I noticed is that when you see him backing up and throwing, say, a 9 course on the field, on those completions that he had over 20 yards, often his receivers make big plays on. those. balls. And they weren’t right about the money, they weren’t right in the stride. Receivers sometimes had to work for the deep ball with him than what (you’d expect) d ‘a great quarterback. “
Jones is not wrong about that fact, as Lawrence had a strong overall completion percentage this season (69.2) and had 51% of his passes that traveled at least 20 yards in the air. And Jones argues that Lawrence’s deeper passes aren’t as precise and limit his receivers’ catching yardage potential.
“He can obviously work on it and improve it. But right now I like a few other guys a little better,” Jones said.
Are they ball watchers? Or a receiving observer?
One of the things June Jones looks for with quarterbacks when they’re throwing the ball vertically is their eyes. Jones’ No.1 criterion for whether he thinks a quarterback can achieve greatness in the NFL is accuracy, and Jones believes a QB’s visual demeanor holds a vital key in that regard.
It’s something that started when Jones was supporting Steve Bartkowski in Atlanta, noticing that Bartkowski would often look at the ball during his flight and not the catcher he was throwing at. And he would just knock over his receivers, sometimes a foot or less.
After Jones made this suggestion to his teammate, Bartkowski’s deep ball became one of the best in the NFL in the late 1970s and early 1980s. And when Jones became coach of Warren Moon, the same thing continued to happen: Moon would hardly topple her man and miss a long win.
The improvement came when Moon focused on keeping his eyes on the receiver, not the ball.
“Grownups never naturally take their eyes off the catcher,” Jones said. “It’s a hard thing to change. But you can change it. Bart and Moon both said it (helped them), and it was something (pioneer of the run-and-shoot offensive) Mouse (Davis) told me years ago. A difference. “
Jones tried looking at Lawrence’s eyes to see if that was the problem, noting that even on his long completions, those throws could be more precise. From what he’s seen on tape, it’s hard for Jones to say definitively.
“You really have to watch the quarterback closely to tell,” he said. “If I saw this with him, that would be the first thing I would work on with him.
“It’s such a simple thing, but you hardly ever hear the coaches talk about it. This thing is more valuable for evaluation on (quarterbacks), and some people are barely aware of it.”
Why so high on Mac Jones?
No, it’s not just a question of last name. June Jones believes Mac Jones – who has started just 17 games in Alabama – is the best quarterback in this class because of his precision on the field.
Many evaluators Yahoo Sports spoke to lamented Mac Jones’ lack of dual threat capability. He’s just not a jammer by any rating, and his athletic traits (including raw arm strength) will almost certainly be rated as average to below average compared to other prospects in this class and level QBs. superior of the NFL.
But June Jones doesn’t see it that way.
“Mac’s deepball accuracy is probably the best I’ve seen in my years as a quarterback coach,” said June Jones. “He’s almost 55 percent over 20 yards, which is amazing.”
Facial verification: true. Last season Jones had 58.9% of his passing attempts over 20 yards from the field. And accounting for lost assists, Pro Football Focus had Jones at an adjusted completion percentage on those 67.1 scalding attempts.
Interestingly, Wilson was higher than Jones in both parameters – 62.5% and 67.9, respectively. But those two quarterbacks had exactly 56 such attempts last season, and Mac Jones threw more yards (1,355-1286) on deep balls in 2020.
June Jones thinks it’s that little difference, which makes the shots slightly more precise on the pitch, that puts Mac Jones up a notch in front of Zach Wilson.
“(Mac Jones) is a receiver watcher,” June Jones said. “I could tell by watching him on TV when they had the right camera angle. And I really think that’s huge for him. That’s how he naturally throws the ball deep.”
With this level of hot grip, June Jones understands that he will be in the minority on his take of Mac-over-Trevor. But ask him if he cares.
“Some people are going to have a problem with me saying this because he only did it for a year, yadda yadda ya,” June Jones said. “But I’ve seen enough in a year where you say, if it’s his only year, wow, this guy is gonna be something else.”
Justin Fields of Ohio State and Trey Lance of North Dakota State both intrigued June Jones when he watched them, but he couldn’t get over some of the missed passes on tape. He likes both as developmental quarterbacks, but thinks the other three should be rated higher.
The idea of Lance in the first round, and potentially high in the first round, is not something Jones likes.
“In a perfect world, you drafted it at the end of the second round or the third round and you develop yourself,” he said. “You can work with him, and you might have something. The tools are all there. But I don’t know how anyone would know that he deserves to be raised. He could definitely become that great quarterback with it. time, but it is not. there. “
June Jones Run-n-Shoot Instructional Videos
One of the favorite projects Jones wanted to work on was to tap into the vast knowledge of Mouse Davis, his almost 50-year-old mentor, and create coaching videos to pass on to future generations.
Because, as Jones said, “You can talk about offensive innovation whatever you want … but everything we do in football now is because of something someone did before.
“All that fancy thing the Kansas City Chiefs do with their short moves, throws, sneaky throws and steering mistakes, etc.” all taken elsewhere. “
So he partnered up with coachtube.com and developed the official Run & Shoot certification program. Jones is thrilled with the results.
“It’s really kind of a life of its own,” Jones said. “One of my coaches approached me because we were always struck by things to do, college coaches and high school coaches, for years. He had this thought of doing something with all this movie that we have available, which people usually can’t get.
“Mouse is 88, so we knew we wanted to come together and do something with it. It was fun talking about all the routes and concepts, and it was fun to hear all the positive feedback.”
Viewers can learn all the concepts of the run-n-shoot offense, from its origins to its modern application, and take tests at the end of the program to be certified.
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