LOS ANGELES -- Last April, the Chicago Bears and New England Patriots were in a tough spot. Both teams wanted one of the five very promising first-round quarterback prospects in the NFL Draft, but neither team had a top 10 pick.
The Patriots sat at No. 15. The Bears were all the way back at No. 20.
But two of the five quarterbacks started to fall within reach. For the Bears, that meant making a bold trade up to No. 11 to snag Justin Fields from Ohio State. For the Patriots, they stood pat, allowing Alabama's Mac Jones to fall to them.
Stay in the game with the latest updates on your beloved Chicago sports teams! Sign up here for our All Access Daily newsletter.
Both quarterbacks ended up playing as rookies. Jones started all 17 games for New England and even won seven straight games in the middle of the season before losing four of his last five starts. Fields played in 12 games and started 10, held back by injuries and a botched plan to keep him on the bench as a rookie.
Zooming out, there's no question Jones had the better rookie season. And that shouldn't be surprising. Bill Belichick had a clear plan to allow Jones to compete for the starting job, and the rookie ultimately beat out Cam Newton, who was released. Fields wasn't given the same chance and he wasn't put in the best position to succeed, which is a big reason why Matt Nagy is no longer the Bears' head coach.
But does that mean the Patriots got the better quarterback? I caught up with Phil Perry, who covers the Patriots for NBC Sports Boston, on Radio Row at the Los Angeles Convention Center to discuss Mac Jones vs Justin Fields. And his feelings about the two quarterbacks might surprise you:
Adam Hoge: Ok, Phil, I'll ask you this straight up: If Justin Fields had still been on the board in the NFL Draft, do you think the Patriots still would have drafted Mac Jones?
NFL
Phil Perry: I think they would have. I would have taken Justin Fields. I really liked Justin Fields ahead of the draft. I think he can be what leads to elite quarterback play in the NFL -- just the traits that he has, and the accuracy that he has shown down the field, combined with the athleticism and the size and the arm strength. I mean, he has the entire package. So whether or not he's able to put it together in the near future, I guess we'll still have to wait and see. But if it were me, I would start with that ball of clay and try to follow that Josh Allen model and build around him and allow him to flourish as best as he can.
Mac Jones has clearly been great for the Patriots. He's the perfect marriage for the Patriots. We said this at the time. I mean, you could go back to Bill Belichick’s scouting notes from when he was with the Browns in the 90s, and he's describing what he wants at every position. If you go to the quarterback description, it is Mac Jones to a tee. Arm strength? Not the biggest deal. Athleticism? Not even mentioned in the description. It's about accuracy and anticipation and good decision making. Getting rid of the football quickly. That's what Mac Jones does. That's what (the Patriots') offense is. That's what they want. So he was perfect for them. And I do think they would have taken him over Justin Fields. I'm just not ready to say that Justin Fields won't be a far better quarterback, three or four years down the line when compared to Jones.
Adam Hoge: That's fair. That's how I looked at it too, going into the draft. I like Mac Jones, but I just felt like Justin Fields had a higher ceiling. But it's all about fit. As you said, Mac Jones ended up being in the perfect situation for him with a coach that values those things -- because not all teams do. Other teams want the arm strength. They want the athleticism. They want the ability to move more than Mac Jones does. So after this first season, is everyone happy with Mac Jones, or is there a split in Boston?
Phil Perry: I would say it is split to a degree on whether or not he's the guy. The next 10 years, is Mac Jones going to be the face of the franchise type of player? Because of the way it ended (this season), the last month of the season was a real mess for the Patriots on a variety of different levels. Defensively, they they actually could not stop Josh Allen. They didn't stop him at home in the regular season. They didn't stop him on the road. In Buffalo, the Bills scored on every single possession that they had in those two (games). Yeah, so that's a big issue. Mac Jones was throwing the football to the wrong team a little bit too often. He was having things like delay of game penalties and was unable to get the team in-and-out of the huddle at the rate that they needed to. So it just got sloppy at the end. And I think to a degree, some of that is how defenses decided to play the Patriots, and they became a pretty easy team to defend. They wanted to run the football. They they did not have an over the top down the field kind of threat. And so teams could just tee off on the line of scrimmage and be really aggressive, take away the routes that Mac Jones clearly likes to throw to. And they had a lot of success late in the year.
So, the accuracy was great all year, the decision making, for the most part, was great. He's tough. He's durable. His teammates love him. All of those things are good. That's what they're looking for. But I think they're going to have to build around him really in the way that the Bengals have with Joe Burrow to allow him to make the leaps forward that he'll need to make to be that franchise guy. Because right now it still is hard to tell. And whether it's Justin Fields or Mac Jones or Joe Burrow or any any of these other quarterbacks, these young quarterbacks, you've got to try to find out what they are, in my opinion, as soon as possible, because it's not all that far down the road where you got to figure out, OK, we're giving this guy an extension? We're going to pay him a $30-plus million a year? And if you don't have a great idea of who he can be or what his ceiling actually is, it makes that decision really, really difficult.
Adam Hoge: It's a good point. You really need to know by like almost midway through Year 3 at the latest.
Phil Perry: That's usually when these guys get their extensions right? It's after Year 3. Baker Mayfield didn't get one because it's unclear if he's actually good or not. But the guys you know are good, as Year 3 comes and goes, that guy is usually getting a new deal.
Adam Hoge: So how do you look at the Justin Fields situation? You said that you would've taken Justin Fields. I think it's pretty obvious he didn't end up in the best place, at least as a rookie. I think the Bears are trying to change that. But he really was not put in a position to succeed as a rookie, which we've covered extensively in Chicago. Do you feel like that situation can be turned around? And by the way, the Bears go to New England next year. We'll see them go head-to-head.
Phil Perry: Which will be great. So much of it hinges on coaching, and he's already in a situation where he's going to be dealing with a new offensive coordinator and a new head coach transition. That can be hard. And you know, we've seen some of these young quarterbacks who are on teams that aren't great, don't have great records, and the turnover is constant and it stagnates their development. That would be my biggest fear -- that the new regime is not the regime for the Bears moving forward and you have more change in a year or two and you just can't possibly get the most out of your most important and most valuable investment at quarterback if that's what's going on around him.
I'm sure you guys will hit it all offseason. They have to build up the offensive line. They have to give him playmakers around it. Allen Robinson looks like he's going to be moving on, so you got to figure out, you know, who is his go-to guy going to be? They probably need multiple players offensively to help him out. But to me, it comes back to, are you developing him the right way behind the scenes? That was one huge advantage that the Patriots had with Josh McDaniels. You can quibble with Josh McDaniels' record as a head coach in Denver and his decision-making ability and his personal life when it came to what happened in Indianapolis. But the track record in terms of helping develop Tom Brady, to a degree, but definitely Matt Cassel, definitely Jimmy Garoppolo. Jacoby Brissett is still in the league. Mac Jones now. He's worked with young quarterbacks and he's brought them along and you know you're going to be able to squeeze as much juice as possible out of these young players at that position with somebody like McDaniels there. I don't know about Luke Getsy. Maybe he'll be great, but it's a difficult position for a young quarterback to be in when there's so much change.
Adam Hoge: Yeah, Luke Getsy has never call plays in the NFL. People are excited about the hire because of the connection with Aaron Rodgers, and he's well-respected in Green Bay, but you just never know how it's going to work out.