Jalen Hurts, Mac Jones reunited at Patriots-Eagles joint practice

Three seasons after they last practiced together, former Alabama quarterbacks Jalen Hurts and Mac Jones were reunited on the practice field — only this time, wearing NFL uniforms.

The former Crimson Tide quarterbacks were teammates in 2017 and 2018, the latter of which was Hurts’ junior year and Jones’ redshirt freshman year. In the 2018 National Championship game, Hurts, who had a career record of 25-2, was benched for then-freshman Tua Tagovailoa. Tagovailoa proceeded to lead Alabama to a comeback victory and subsequently earned the starting job the next season, prompting Hurts to transfer to Oklahoma ahead of the 2019 season. Jones, on the other hand, spent 2019 as Tagovailoa’s backup before assuming the Alabama quarterbacking job in 2020 after Tagovailoa was drafted by the Dolphins.

Since then, all three of Alabama’s 2018 quarterbacks have been drafted in the first two rounds. In 2020, Tagovailoa was selected by the Dolphins with the fifth overall pick and Hurts was taken by the Eagles with the 53rd overall pick. Jones, on the other hand, was taken by the Patriots with the 15th overall pick in the 2021 NFL Draft.

Hurts and Jones were reunited on Monday when the Eagles and Patriots held a joint practice, and they appeared happy to compete again.

“Mac, I think he’s a great player,” Hurts said. “We spent a lot of time together at Alabama, when him and Tua [Tagovailoa] came in. I’ve seen him grow so much. It’s good to see him now, seeing him with the opportunity he has now. I’m excited for him.”

“It was cool to talk to them,” Jones said of Hurts, Landon Dickerson, Ross Pierschbacher and DeVonta Smith, the Eagles’ Alabama alumni. “That was kind of the past, and they were great teammates, but it was good to see them out here.”

Although Hurts wasn’t drafted out of Alabama, he transferred from the university on good terms, saying he’d always be thankful for his time at Alabama. He echoed those thoughts on Monday, saying he takes pride in his path to the NFL.

“I think [I] take pride in what it took to get here,” Hurts said. “We put a lot of work in. Alabama is a different place. It’s a process, and you have to trust and buy into that process. I think we’ve all kind of made it out in our particular ways, so we’re all blessed and fortunate to have opportunities to play this game we love at the highest level, so we don’t take that for granted.”