{"id":940057,"date":"2026-07-08T14:24:15","date_gmt":"2026-07-08T14:24:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/940057\/"},"modified":"2026-07-08T14:24:15","modified_gmt":"2026-07-08T14:24:15","slug":"mac-jones-recalls-crazy-journey-to-49ers-after-being-passed-over-during-2021-nfl-draft","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/940057\/","title":{"rendered":"Mac Jones recalls ‘crazy journey’ to 49ers after being passed over during 2021 NFL Draft"},"content":{"rendered":"

Mac Jones<\/a> thought he might end up in San Francisco during the 2021 NFL Draft. It took four more years for him to actually become a Niner.<\/p>\n

On a recent episode of the “Bussin’ with the Boys” podcast, the quarterback discussed his memories of the draft process, where the debate was between the 49ers selecting Jones or dual-threat Trey Lance<\/a>.<\/p>\n

“I remember, like, all the hype leading up to it, but yeah, I think everything happens for a reason,” Jones recalled<\/a>. “I’m here where I’m at now, and I did think they traded up for somebody, and I knew it was one of two people, and I was one of the people. So, I guess if you’re a gambling man, it’s a 50-50 shot at the start.”<\/p>\n

The Niners ultimately chose<\/a> Lance after trading<\/a> the No. 12 pick and first-rounders in 2022 and 2023, along with a 2022 third-rounder, to the Dolphins for No. 3. Jones, who fell<\/a> to the Patriots at No. 15, quipped that San Francisco could have saved themselves some capital by just waiting out the process.<\/p>\n

“You could have just picked me at 12,” he said, chuckling. “I don’t know if I’m worth three first-round picks, but s—, sign me up.”<\/p>\n

After a stellar rookie season in New England, things went sideways for Jones, who was eventually traded<\/a> to Jacksonville in 2024. The former first-rounder said even then the Niners were attempting to bring him in to back up Brock Purdy<\/a>.<\/p>\n

“I think, even the year I got traded, they were trying to get me back in San Francisco, from Patriots to Jaguars,” Jones said. “So they were trying to get me to San Francisco then, but they ended up not doing it.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Mac Jones thought he might end up in San Francisco during the 2021 NFL Draft. It took four…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":940058,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2081],"tags":[1227,7,5215,88,6,609,4267,252,238,237,261,2635],"class_list":["post-940057","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-seattle-seahawks","tag-around-the-nfl","tag-football","tag-mac-jones","tag-news","tag-nfl","tag-no-minute","tag-offseason-news","tag-san-francisco-49ers","tag-seahawks","tag-seattle","tag-seattle-seahawks","tag-seattleseahawks"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nfl\/116884816743829249","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/940057","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=940057"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/940057\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/940058"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=940057"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=940057"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=940057"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}