The first player taken by the New England Patriots in the 2021 NFL draft has made his very first visit to Gillette Stadium.Mac Jones, a quarterback out of Alabama, posed for photos with Patriots owners Robert and Jonathan Kraft and spoke with reporters Friday afternoon after he was drafted by New England with the 15th overall pick in the first round Thursday night.Jones is the first quarterback to be selected in the first round since Bill Belichick became head coach of the Patriots in 2000, and is New England's highest-drafted offensive player under Belichick.The 22-year-old led the Crimson Tide to a perfect 13-0 record and a national championship in 2020 while completing an NCAA-record 77.4% of his passes for 4,500 yards, 41 touchdowns and four interceptions. He was named a First Team All-American and won the Davey O'Brien Award, which is given to the top quarterback in college football."It's all about work. It's all about winning. It's all about football, and that's something that I'm always going to be about," Jones said on the field at Gillette Stadium Friday. "It's been awesome to talk to some of the guys on Instagram. I'm really looking forward to talking to them in person, too."Friday's visit to Gillette Stadium marked the first time Jones, a Jacksonville, Florida native, had ever been to Foxborough."This place is really awesome. Honestly, just a beautiful stadium," Jones said. "I know it's windy, and hopefully it's not always this windy, but you've got to get used to it. The field looks great and the stadium looks great. I'm blessed to be here."In fact, Jones' stop at Gillette was just his second visit to New England. He says his family left on a cruise to Canada out of Boston when he was about 10 years old and recalls a scary incident with an escalator."I was wearing Crocs, for whatever reason, and I just kind of, like, got my foot stuck in the escalator and I looked back and I was like: 'I can't get it out!'" Jones said. "But I finally got it out."Robert Kraft also spoke to the media on Friday and noted how it was the first time in 480 days that reporters were able to speak about football with the owners at Gillette Stadium, due in large part to the COVID-19 pandemic.Gillette Stadium is still serving as a state-run mass COVID-19 vaccination site. Kraft announced that 500,000 people have been vaccinated inside the stadium.