Before you read this, I know that you know that I like Washington, but hopefully by the end of this article, you’ll understand why I can’t stop talking about Sidney Jones. Also, no I’m not crazy for saying Bill Belichick should trade up in the draft.
Just to keep the crazy thing going, Sidney Jones tearing his Achilles at the Washington pro day might have the best thing to ever happen to him. Jones was widely regarded as one of the top 3 corners in this draft class. While many scouts still see that potential in Jones, they are scared to use a first round pick on him now. This could drop his stock to the middle or end of the second round, possibly even the beginning of the third. Jones has said he will be back on the field within six months, which might help his stock a bit. With all that being said, Jones would be a perfect addition to the Patriots, and the injury really just makes his situation better if he were to end up in New England.
Let’s start by looking at the Patriots’ cornerback situation. If Malcolm Butler agrees to sign the first round tender the team put on him, it seems very likely that he will leave at the end of the year considering how disgruntled he has been with the contract situation. This gives Jones time to fully rehab before seeing the field, and time to learn Belichick’s system. Going off of that, Jones would be an incredible addition to an already talented defense.
Now as much as you’ve already read about my Husky love in previous articles and think I might be hyping Jones up, I’m not. Jones was targeted only 48 total times in 14 games this past season. Jones also averaged seven coverage snaps per reception against him per Pro Football Focus, and after crunching some numbers, that comes to seven catches against Jones all year. SEVEN, in the pass heavy Pac-12. If that isn’t enough, Jones did not allow a touchdown catch all season. And that is against receivers we’ll see in the NFL on Sundays soon, like USC’s Juju Smith-Schuster, Utah’s Tim Patrick, Washington State’s Gabe Marks and Oregon’s Darren Carrington. I feel like this might be a bad way to end this article, but seriously, need I say more?
