Scouting The Draft, Chad Jones, S, LSU
by David_Wyatt on Feb 7, 2010 2:23 PM EST
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That's right, were going for the double here on GGN today, and bringing you two reports on the same day. That's how good we are to you. As a LSU baseball fan, let me just get this out of the way straight away, Chad Jones was part of the 2009 NCAA College World Series winning LSU Tigers, so I already think of him pretty fondly as a an athlete, will try and stay impartial on the football scouting though, even though I'm high on his game anyway.
Firstly I will say that it is going to be near impossible to keep Taylor Mays talk out of this thread, but we have gone over him 3-4 times already, people know how I feel about him, and I know how others do, so if we can, let's keep the focus on Chad Jones in the comment section.
SEC seems to be the preferred college football conference to show over here, so it has given me a good chance to really get a look at him on every down to see his positioning, how he reads the game, and his movement even when he is not in on the play. Although I do wish the camera angle would be a little wider so you can pick up all the players, but that's a 'grinds my gears' that we can hold for another occasion.
When Chad decided to leave school for the NFL, it was devastating news to two head coaches, Les Miles of the football team and Paul Mainieri of the baseball team:
"My attitude has always been that a young person has to do what they think is best for their own life," Mainieri said. "I feel very grateful that he was a part of our program for two years. He helped us win a national championship last year. And I loved coaching him. He’s a wonderful young man. I’m sorry that we’re not going to have him any longer."
Career Stats
2007- 14 games played, 34 tackles, 4 passes broken up, 2 sacks, 1 interception
2008- 13 games played, 50 tackles, 6 passes broken up, 0 sacks, 2 forced fumbles, 1 interceptions
2009- 13 games played, 74 tackles, 6 passes broken up, 1 forced fumble, 3 interceptions
Career Achievements & Awards
2009 Second Team All SEC (AP)
2009 Second Team All SEC (Coaches)
Walter Camp, National Defensive Player of the Week (September 2009)
2009 NCAA College World Series Champion
More after the jump:
So what does Chad Jones do well?
Has excellent size and strength, stands at 6'3 and weighs 231lb's. Is a big game player, some of his best games have come on the biggest stage against some of the better teams. Knocked down the final pass against Florida to win the game for LSU, Sacked and forced a fumble v Alabama in 2007 to set up the game winning drive. Is excellent in coverage which likely comes as a result of him playing corner for LSU in 2007. Will hit like a ton of bricks, and players will think twice about coming over the middle. Also goes up and contests passes. Can be used up at the line like a linebacker, and either stay up and play the run or drop and play coverage and teams won't miss a beat. Is a very controlled safety who wraps up his tackles in the open field. Has versatility on defence, he can play zone, man up with a tight end, rush the passer or play the spy on players coming out of the backfield. Takes good routes to the ball.Comes from a defensive system with LSU.
So what does Chad Jones need to improve on?
Only has two years worth of starts at the safety position, even though he is a three year starter. Takes good routes to the ball but there is room for improvement. His back-pedal is suspect and needs to be less physical down the field or might get in penalty trouble at the next level. Doesn't have the best speed, and has to play his coverage spot on as doesn't necessarily have the 'elite' range for the free safety position. Could make more plays on the ball, needs to continue to improve this like he did between 2008 and 2009.
Final Word
Safety is not really a position of need for us, much like Dan Williams. If he fell to us in the second round, I would find it hard to criticise the pick as best player available, as he has first round talent. I like his athleticism, and he generally has a good skill set for the safety position. I'm thinking that if he has a good combine and pro day like I expect he will, he could creep into the very late stages of the first or more likely the early second round area. Whoever does pick him up is getting a great athlete, who plays his heart out every snap, and is dedicated to getting better. Wish him the best of luck, just don't think we need to go to that position with early selections. If he did happen to somehow fall to us in the 2nd and we took him, you wouldn't hear any complaints from me.
Highlights:
Was hitting hard in High School
And continued to hit hard in college, called for leading with the head, but it looked unintentional to me:
Short Highlight Clip:
1) Perrish Cox
2) Jared Odrick
3) Brandon Graham
4) Golden Tate
5) Kyle WIlson
6) Donovan Warren
=6) Patrick Robinson
7) Damien Williams
8) Chad Jones
9) Dan Williams
10) Dominique Franks (Only if we traded down with the first pick)
11) Taylor Mays
Other GGN Scouting Articles
Scouting The Draft, Dan Williams, DT, Tennessee
Scouting The Draft, Dominique Franks, CB, Oklahoma
Scouting The Draft, Kyle Wilson, CB, Boise State
Scouting The Draft, Perrish Cox, CB, Oklahoma State
Scouting The Draft, Patrick Robinson, CB, Florida State
Scouting The Draft, Donovan Warren, CB,Michigan
Scouting The Draft, Golden Tate, WR, Notre Dame
Scouting The Draft, Taylor Mays, S, USC
Scouting The Draft, Brandon Graham, Michigan
Scouting The Draft, Damian Williams
Scouting The Draft, Jared Odrick, DE, Penn State
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I will reserve judgment until i see his 40 time.
Technique and positioning mean little if you just don’t have the ability to keep up with NFL receivers (e.g. Roy Williams). And technique and positioning can be coached, ability cannot. The Player to be Un-named has the edge bc he has the potential to be a great great player if in the right environment (system, coaching, veteran leadership). He’s big and he can fly (reports have his 40 somewhere btw 4.2 and 4.4; thats fast) and he comes from an NFL-type defense. I need to see Jones’ speed. The SEC is not the NFL. But I like what I hear about him. You know he’s athletic (former corner and is an exceptional baseball player). He seems to be smart and aggressive. His combine will tell us everything.
As a side note. Unbiased 40 times are probably the only thing the combine is good for.
I also wantto add that David Wyatt is the man for all his work on this stuff.
Thanks Dave, I really appreciate what you do and consider you a must read.
Appreciate that CB.
Not sure what he is going to run, 4.5 is where I expect him to time, so he has some speed but he doesn’t have elite speed. I don’t think his speed is going to limit him too much though, he is not exactly slow, and has used his speed rushing the passer, a lot more successfully than he who must not be named lol If he can go sub 4.5 in the 40 I think you will see him rocket up the boards, if he times at around 4.47 or something like that.
I’m actually looking forward to the combine (usually glued to the screen watching the dullest commentary on a lot of drills that really don’t matter) to see what Jones runs, I think he can go sub 4.5. Also want to see what the ‘other one’ runs, not buying this 4.2 speed until I see it with my own eyes.
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See, saying Chad Jones rushes the passer more succesfully then Taylor Mays is like saying
Charles Woodson rushes the passer better then Darrelle Revis. This had Jets fans having conniptions. It’s the same thing. Yeah, Jones is a more successful pass rusher, you know, because he… blitzes. Taylor Mays didn’t do a lot of the things we would have him do in our system, because USC constantly has a dominant front 4 that doesn’t need much help blitzing from the secondary. I understand you like Jones better, I just don’t understand calling him a better pass rusher, when Mays doesn’t ever get an opportunity to rush the passer.
I mean, I could say Charles Woodson is a better tackler then Revis is, because Woodson was put in a lot more positions to actually make tackles, but it doesn’t mean that it Woodson is actually better.
"Relax, all right? Don't try to strike everybody out. Strikeouts are boring; besides that, they're fascist. Throw some ground balls. It's more democratic."
- CRASH DAVIS
Taylor Mays did rush the passer quite a bit this year, if anything this year he rushed more than Jones did. Carrol said before the season started that he was going to have Mays play up more and give him oppurtunity to make plays. It’s not the same at all because he does rush the passer better, and he plays in as conservative a defence as you probably have in college football, and he covers better than Mays. So using the Woodson/Revis comparison really doesn’t make sense. People were saying Woodson was better because he played more positions and contributed in several different ways while over looking the fact that Revis was much better in coverage. However Jones is better at rushing the passer (based on the limited amount both did it) and is far superior in coverage, so what your saying doesn’t make any sense.
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To make it clearer, it makes little sense because they both play nearly the exact same identical role on their teams, both play in conservative defence, and Jones is better in rushing the passer and playing coverage. So the excuse that Mays can’t do it because he wasn’t given opportunity is useless, because he was given limited opportunities (same as Jones), and Jones was just better.
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BTW
really don’t want to get back into the whole Taylor Mays debate, would much prefer to talk about Jones game, so won’t say any more on him after this, as we have been back and forward 3-4 times now, and the positions are not going to change.
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Its all about the combine at this point.
If Mays runs a 4.3 or better, theres no way he’s around until we pick at 29, so its moot. If he is, I say take him. If he runs a 4.4 or slower, im not sure he’s worth the risk when we have Rhodes, who we know can at least cover. Some may say theres not much of a difference btw 4.3 or 4.4. There is IMO.
If Jones runs a 4.5 or better, and we can unload Rhodes for a second or third rounder or trade him for a veteran slot receiver, I say pull the trigger. He can cover and loves to hit. Could be an intimidating force.
Mays...
if he rushed the passer at all this year, this was the only year he had to do it, and watching all of USC’s games, he didn’t do it much. Much more often he was sent to help in the run game, and rarely blitzed the QB. Maybe he did it a bit more, but if so, only because USC’s defense lost 7 starters. His first 3 years, he more or less never blitzed. Maybe in 2009 he blitzed once a game, if that. Not something he has ever done before. Seems silly that we can only talk about Chad Jones, I mean, we talked about other safeties in the Mays thread, we talked about Kyle Wilson in the Cox thread, I mean I know you don’t like him, but so now we can’t talk about him?
Again, I understand you not liking Mays, but he is not a pass rusher, so obviously rushing the passer is not going to be one of his best skills. For 3 years, he didn’t do it at all. For this last year, he did it sparingly. He was the main holdover in one of the best defenses of all time, went from a piece in an absurdly good defense (exactly what he will be with the Jets) in his junior year, and he would have went to 10 if he decided to skip his senior year, to the main piece in a very suspect defense of youngsters in their first year as starters, and his senior year was probably his worst year.
"Relax, all right? Don't try to strike everybody out. Strikeouts are boring; besides that, they're fascist. Throw some ground balls. It's more democratic."
- CRASH DAVIS
I’m just saying I’m not going to talk about him because it’s going round in circles, and to be quite honest I’m getting a little tired of it. This is the Chad Jones thread, and I said we wouldn’t be able to keep Mays out but I’m done talking about him because I have said all I wanted to and listened to the opposing argument. You can continue to talk about him if you wish, it’s a free country, just don’t expect a response from me.
I want to talk about Chad Jones, who’s topic this is.
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Also people who come to this thread want opinions on Chad Jones, there is a link above to the Taylor Mays report where we stated both our stances on him, if they wanted that, I’m sure they would go there. Just trying to keep things on topic and be fair to all the players we cover.
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Cheers Dave….starting to get a little harder now with players not having much film on them, and with smaller schools, I never really got much of a chance to see them. So they will start taking longer to do as we move down.
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With the recent Rhodes tweet about leaving and winning the SB with another team...
Perhaps getting a Safety becomes a priority.
If Rhodes were to be traded, then both Jones and Mays would rocket up my board.
Big difference between taking a risk on a player in a big area of need, and taking a risk on a player at the position that is unnecessary. Would be the difference between Mays being high and low on my list.
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