New England Patriots receiver Kendrick Bourne has played with several quarterbacks during his five-year NFL career, most notably Jimmy Garoppolo and now Mac Jones.
The 26-year-old receiver joined 98.5 The Hub on Tuesday and praised how Jones throws a more catchable ball.
"I would say the velocity part -- Mac, he's throwing it hard. But when you catch it, it's like a pillow. I could definitely say that. He's special," Bourne said, via Mass Live.
Bourne said Jimmy G, with whom the WR played four years in San Francisco, throws more of a "rifle" that comes harder.
Jones has shined throwing that good ball, particularly dicing up defenses on intermediate routes. His accuracy in tight windows has been spectacular this early in his career.
Among the five rookies with 50-plus pass attempts, Jones has the highest completion percentage and passer rating and is the only one with more pass TDs than INTs this season. According to Next Gen Stats, Jones has generated a 4.6 completion percentage over expectation (ranking 6th in the NFL) and averaged 2.64 seconds in time to throw (5th-fastest). The knocks have been on the deep balls -- 7.7 air yards per attempt (23rd), 8.5 deep pass percentage (28th) -- but his wideouts have also missed a couple of dimes.
Jones ranks fourth among qualified passers with a 71.1 completion percentage this season, the seventh-highest rate (min. 200 attempts) in a single season in NFL history and the highest percentage by a rookie (min. 200 pass attempts) in NFL history.
"Mac, I'm just really blessed to be in a situation with him and starting this new era of New England football," Bourne said. "It's the same, but it's just new players. I'm just glad to be a part of it man. We're showing a lot of flashes and I'm just very appreciative of that, because you know it shows we got potential."
Even with all the glowing praise of Jones thus far, the Patriots' offense needs more consistency and to connect on more big plays.
New England will look to snap its four-game home losing streak Sunday against the one-win Jets.
