There may be no coach in college football with a more all-business, no-nonsense approach than Alabama’s Nick Saban. The same could be said about New England Patriots head coach Bill Belichick in the NFL.

Not only are Saban and Belichick friends, but they’re cut from the same coaching cloth and have similar ways they handle their football teams. That could work out well for Mac Jones.

After spending the past four years with Saban at Alabama, Jones is now preparing for his first NFL season with Belichick’s Patriots. So while some may not know what to expect from the longtime New England coach, Jones may have had an advantage because of his time with Saban.

Former NFL quarterback and current CBS analyst Phil Simms sees it that way, and he shared those thoughts and his initial impressions of Jones during an appearance on “The Herd with Colin Cowherd” on Wednesday.

“He knows it, because he played with Nick Saban. He already knows, they’re the same guy,” Simms said on the show. “So he’s been taught mentally and all those things by an old-school coach — I love that term. ‘Oh, he’s old school.’ Hey, old school’s really good. Half the league, all the guys that are having great success are old school.

“But Mac Jones played for Nick Saban. He knows the mentality, how to act, how to handle himself. And listen, I’ve got to tell you the truth, I was a big fan of his coming out, everything he did. But he’s even been better in the preseason games than I expected. Very quick with the football, can get rid of it and moving around a lot more and looks even better than it did in college. If you can handle Nick Saban, you can handle Bill Belichick, too. And that’s what he’s used to.”

Jones is currently trying to win the starting job with the Patriots, as he’s been battling with Cam Newton throughout training camp and the preseason. Whether or not Jones starts this year, he’s likely New England’s future franchise QB, considering it took him with a first-round pick in the 2021 NFL Draft.