Mac Jones on His 49ers Future, Kittle Return, TE U & More

Mac Jones has been asked the trade question so many times he has worked out a system. When guest host Andrew Siciliano tried to sneak up on it from a clever angle, the San Francisco 49ers quarterback did not bite. "Think I'm going to let the Reese's answer that one," he said. "I have no comment."

Jones joined the show live from Nashville, where he was at Tight End University on behalf of Reese's, the event George Kittle, Greg Olsen and Travis Kelce built into what Siciliano called the party of the year. Jones came last year on a last-minute invite from Kittle and earned the advance invite this time. He framed the appeal simply: as a quarterback, your best friends are always the tight ends, and now on his third team he has thrown to a lot of them.

Asked to name a favorite, Jones laughed his way out of it. "I can't give you an exact answer cuz all the other ones will be really pissed at me." He praised Hunter Henry in New England and Evan Engram in Jacksonville before landing on Kittle, who he said built the culture in San Francisco alongside Juice. On Kittle's health and his odds of being on the pitch when the Niners open in Australia, Jones deferred to the man himself. "He's a wizard when it comes to that stuff," Jones said. "I'm not in his body, but he knows where he's at."

The grass-versus-turf debate that Kittle has championed got a notably different reception from Jones. While Kittle and others have pushed the NFL to follow the World Cup's lead and lay natural grass, Jones planted no flag. "I love grass. I've also played on turf," he said, noting his high school stadium was turf. "I don't really have a preference, but I also don't run that much compared to these other guys." Siciliano found the indifference refreshing, since most players stake out a side.

Jones is a genuine soccer fan, which made the World Cup talk easy. His brother played in college, and he counts soccer among his favorite sports alongside tennis and football. He sees the games in Australia and Mexico City as a chance to spread football internationally. When Siciliano laid out the maintenance reality of keeping grass alive in a two-team building like MetLife Stadium through bad weather, Jones agreed the cost and upkeep are the whole problem.

The contract talk, when Jones finally engaged it, came with real warmth. He called the 49ers the best organization he has played for top to bottom and pointed to John Lynch, Kyle Shanahan and the York family. "I don't like leaving good people," he said. He acknowledged anything is possible before the deadline but said he tries not to track it. His goal this summer is improving his technique to play better than the decent stretch he put together last year, with an eye on a bigger deal down the line.

His closing philosophy was the same one that got him through the trade questions. "Be where your feet are," Jones said, "and my feet are in San Francisco, and I like it a lot."