Bill Belichick’s Next Franchise QB Could Be Zach Wilson According To One Mock Draft

PROVO, Utah – Could we see Bill Belichick coaching up BYU’s Zach Wilson next season?

CBS Sports put out their latest mock draft for the 2021 NFL Draft, and they’ve got Wilson cracking into the Top-10 and landing at No. 9 overall with the New England Patriots.

Zach Wilson, y’all! We really love Wilson’s game but this is the first time he’s cracked our first round. He’s been lights out this season and reminds us of all the good things we loved about Johnny Manziel and Baker Mayfield when they were in college — except Wilson is more accurate and arguably a better runner. The Pats need a QB and we continue to expect Wilson to garner first-round buzz.

Life post-Tom Brady has not been kind to Bill Belichick and the Patriots as they sit at 2-5 currently and are on a four-game losing streak. The Pats are likely headed for the Top-10 in the Draft this April, and a strong candidate to be in the quarterback market after the Cam Newton experiment has gone awry.

If Belichick likes Wilson, then he will probably do anything to get him. In 2019, the Boston Globe published a piece asking, what kind of a player is a ‘Belichick guy’? One of the main characteristics thrown around were cerebral.

The Patriots taking a QB in the top ten? The latest mock draft from @ryanwilsonCBS has plenty of teams making big moves.

— NFLonCBS (@NFLonCBS) November 3, 2020

Wilson would check off that box. Ask anyone around BYU’s football program, and they will tell you that Wilson is a “film junkie.” Whether it’s college or pro, Wilson is studying everything he can about the game of football to improve. That might seem like a “Belichick guy.”

CBS’s first-round mock draft had a total of five quarterbacks being selected in their first-round, with Wilson being the third signal-caller off the board. In front of Wilson was Clemson’s Trevor Lawrence and Ohio State’s Justin Fields. Behind him, North Dakota State’s Trey Lance and Alabama’s Mac Jones.

Jones, like Wilson, has seen a meteoric rise up draft boards and mock drafts. He ended up at pick No. 18 to the Chicago Bears in the CBS mock draft.

Wilson is only a junior this season and would have to declare early to be in the 2021 NFL Draft. He has a huge test coming up on Friday against Boise State that could continue to elevate his draft stock if he shows off that arm strength and accuracy that has him as one of the biggest risers from this crazy and unprecedented 2020 season.

Mitch Harper is a BYU Insider for sports.ksl.com and host of the Cougar Tracks Podcast (SUBSCRIBE) and Cougar Sports Saturday (Saturday from 12–3 p.m., KSL Newsradio). Follow him on Twitter: @Mitch_Harper and the KSL Sports app.