#9 for the best pound-for-pound athlete in the draft? That would not surprise me much at all.
Jones has been mis-evaluated for quite some time now, because of the fact that he played QB and doesn't have the arm to play QB in the pros. It's hard to find the kind of play-making ability that he brings to the field, in all aspects. Jones is just a superior athlete, who showed more than enough hands at the Senior Bowl to say that his superior size and athleticism will show up in the pros. It would be different if he just dropped everything thrown his way, would be obvious that he would be a heartbreaker pro. But he didn't. He caught every single pass thrown his way, not a single drop. What traditional wide receivers even managed that?
Highlights of his talent:
1. His 40 speed obviously. At 4.37 there's just about nobody on the field that will outrun him...only once in a while will he find a corner that has the speed to outrun him regardless of angles.
2. His 10 yard split speed, which was one of the highest measured at the combine.
3. His agility drill results, cone drill, and shuttle run. They were really good. Absolutely superior when you consider his size.
4. His size. What corner do you put him up against? At 6'6" you will have to put him up against the big corners, especially in the redzone. But in the NFL, the big corners are the slower corners. And, the new rules don't even allow those corners to get away with the contact that they use to.
5. His demeanor. This may be his biggest asset in the NFL. Ok, that might be exaggerating, considering that size/speed combo. But he is just...lax. All the time. He doesn't lose his grip ever. It is so remarkably deceiving. The guy can just burn the heck out of you and you'll still end up underestimating him. His demeanor will fool you right in the middle of his route running, because you will SWEAR that he's not running very fast, you'll SWEAR that he's telegraphing and won't beat you...and he'll do it anyway. I watched him run agility drills at the senior bowl, and I swore he looked like a defensive end speed guy out there. But oops, the final clock came in and he ran them faster than most WRs.
Bottom line: Put him in the open field against the big corners and he can probably shake them off, because even the big ones are 4 inches shorter than him, put him in the open field against small corners and watch them lay on the dirt writhing in pain. That is, if he doesn't flat outrun them. Because of his speed, in between the 20's you will have to put the faster corners on him, aka the smaller guys. In that case, lob it up, and how does a guy who is 8 full inches taller than you not end up with the ball one on one? All in all, his mere presence DEMANDS safety help over the top, and when that happens, you've just opened up the running game, tight end completions, and/or your other WR.
Keep this in mind. His size and speed combination has not been seen at the wide receiver position in the entire NFL's history. There will be a lot of defensive coordinators who simply will not know what to do to stop him, even before he gets on the field. His size and speed are just not fair to defenses. Sometimes, guys as tall and big as him will draw safety coverage, because safeties are the athletes on the field that match up best against that kind of size. But there are probably very few safeties in the NFL that can match up with his speed. Sean Taylor can't match up with his speed. The only safety that comes to mind that can match up with that speed is Bob Sanders, who is practically a midget.
Someone in the top half of the first round really OUGHT to consider Matt Jones. I certainly would. It's no worst than taking that 50/50 gamble on a franchise quarterback. In fact, I would put the odds much better that Jones' gifts will be able to shine in the NFL. My only question about him is will he thrive when he's got safety help over the top of him constantly, because that separates the good WRs from the REAL good WRs in the NFL.
