New England Patriots quarterback Mac Jones has impressed in his 1st professional season. The former Alabama great hasn’t put up gaudy numbers thus far — his high in passing yards is 307 — but he appears to be gaining more comfort with the offense on a weekly basis.

As a result, the Patriots are 6-4, one-half game back of the Buffalo Bills for 1st place in the AFC East. They’ll look to extend a 4-game winning streak on “Thursday Night Football” at the Atlanta Falcons, who are 4-5.

And Jones’ play calls to mind that of the current Falcons quarterback and former NFL MVP.

“He reminds me of Matt Ryan,” former New York Jets general manager Mike Tannenbaum, now an ESPN analyst, said on “The Rich Eisen Show” on Wednesday. “He is a good, not great, athlete. He has a good arm, not an elite arm. He’s smart. He throws with great accuracy and anticipation, and he’s somebody that I think is a perfect fit for New England.”

Of course, Jones had to wait his turn to have his name called in the 2021 NFL Draft, with Zach Wilson, Trey Lance, and Justin Fields all coming off the board before Jones was selected 15th overall by New England.

“Mac Jones may wind up being a better player than Trey Lance,” Tannenbaum said. “San Francisco traded up multiple picks to get Trey Lance, and I was candidly surprised that they didn’t pick Mac Jones, because he would have been a perfect fit there…It’s early, but how Mac Jones is playing is not a fluke.”