3-Round 2021 NFL Mock Draft: Broncos, Bears trade up for quarterbacks
By Randy Gurzi
3. 42. QB. Alabama. Mac Jones. Scouting Report. Pick Analysis. player
3. San Francisco 49ers (via Houston Texans through Miami Dolphins): Mac Jones, QB, Alabama
There are now some insiders offering up guarantees that the San Francisco 49ers are not going to draft Justin Fields. Personally, this feels like a major mistake since Fields has proven time and again that he’s the second-best quarterback in this class and somehow, he slides out of the top-three picks.
Having said that, the evidence seems to be there that the 49ers are going to take Mac Jones from Alabama. It’s a head-scratcher, to say the least, but this is their guy. In fact, they believed in him so much that they gave up a haul of draft picks in order to move up from No. 12 to the No. 3 spot — landing that pick in a trade with the Miami Dolphins.
The good news for San Francisco fans, however, is that their head coach knows how to get the most out of his quarterbacks — and he also seems to have a type. Kyle Shanahan has done big things with Matt Ryan, Kirk Cousins, Jimmy Garoppolo, and Matt Schaub during his career and Jones feels like a similar style player.
He doesn’t have the most tools at his disposal but he does process information quickly and gets the ball out of his hands in a hurry. In the end, what matters is if he’s successful and if Shanahan wins with him, no one will care who he was taken ahead of.