‘Mac Jones is your new Joe Burrow’: Joel Klatt proclaims Alabama QB the Heisman frontrunner

Mac Jones has had an electric start to 2020 as Alabama’s starting quarterback in place of the departed Tua Tagovailoa. The Jacksonville native has thrown for 400 or more yards in his last 3 games, completing just over 78 percent of his passes and throwing for 12 touchdowns versus just 2 interceptions.

If you ask Joel Klatt, the similarities to Jones and last year’s Heisman Trophy winner, Joe Burrow, are striking, and that could equal the junior winning the award at the end of the year.

Klatt brought up 4 key things that Burrow had at LSU the previous year that led to his Heisman campaign: a strong wide receiving corps; a running back skilled at getting involved in the receiving game himself that certainly could get equally involved in the rushing department; a “terrific offensive line”; and “a very creative, aggressive play-caller” in Joe Brady.

“Well, guess what? That’s virtually identical to what Mac Jones has right now,” said Klatt.

The FOX Sports football analyst also brought up several statistics, including completion percentage, yards per attempt, passing yardage per game and quarterback rating, and pointed out that Jones was ahead of where Burrow was at this point a season ago.

“Mac Jones is your new Joe Burrow,” Klatt proclaimed.

“He’s putting up numbers right now, folks, that are way ahead of what Joe Burrow had a year ago!”@JoelKlatt explains why @AlabamaFTBL QB @MacJones_10 is on pace to follow in the Heisman winner’s footsteps 🐘🙌 pic.twitter.com/kARkcye3Gs

— FOX College Football (@CFBONFOX) October 20, 2020

Sydney Hunte

Sydney is an Atlanta-based journalist who has covered everything from SEC and ACC football to MLS, the U.S. men's national soccer team and professional tennis. His work has appeared on such platforms as SB Nation, Cox Media Group and FanSided.