Richard Sherman knows how it feels to be underrated.
He will enter his 11th season in the National Football League and fourth year with the San Francisco 49ers in the fall.
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He is a Super Bowl champion, five-time Pro Bowl selection, three-time first-team All-Pro, NFC Defensive Player of the Year, and member of the NFL 2010s All-Decade Team. His career has been filled with big moments, but Sherman’s appearance on the Cris Collingsworth podcast was not about him. Everyone is gearing up to see this year’s draft class hear their names called in April.
Mac Jones, an alumnus of the University of Alabama, is one of a few quarterbacks projected in the first round.
He had a great season in 2020, and it was one where he led the Crimson Tide to a national championship. Jones became the first 4,000-yard passer (4,500) of the Nick Saban era and tossed 41 scoring passes. He propelled DeVonta Smith to win the Heisman Trophy while he secured the Davey O’Brien National Quarterback of the Year.
Jones finished last season as a Heisman finalist, but few people respect his game. He was a fifth-round pick in 2011, so Sherman understands why people underrate Jones.
Sherman feels that the talent around Jones should not knock him from being a first-rounder.
“They are punishing Mac Jones on the lack of mobility based on recency bias”
Is Mac Jones being underrated?🤔 pic.twitter.com/2ENDKhWonZ
— PFF (@PFF) March 7, 2021
“You just had Tua, who just left from almost an identical team minus the huge parts that left, and he wasn’t punished for it,” Sherman said. “They were like well Tua had all these NFL-caliber players, so we don’t think he should go top-5. They still took him top-5.”
As productive as Jones was last season, Sherman said his ‘lack of mobility’ is why analysts are not sold on him.
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“Even though Tom Brady, who is not moving outside of those hashes, just won another Super Bowl, I think people still feel the league is trending toward mobile quarterbacks,” he said. “Even though Mac Jones is making all the throws, very accurate, hidden in tight windows, and played in a pro-style offense, I think they are punishing him for the lack of mobility based on recency bias.”
Some see Jones as a first-rounder and others do not, but he will prove himself in the pros.
He was doubted at Alabama but silenced critics in delivering the Tide to a championship.
Whoever takes him in the draft is getting a winner with competitive fire at quarterback.
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Stephen M. Smith is the managing editor and senior writer for Touchdown Alabama Magazine. You can “like” him on Facebook or “follow” him on Twitter, via @CoachingMSmith.
