Wonder and I study many hours of tape, look at workouts, stats, practicalities, speed, desire, off the field issues, schedule, and our own separate methods of evaluation.
I made a MISTAKE with Jones, as after reviewing my work I came to a different conclusion.
Jones was a 4 year starter at Michigan State. His tackles were off the charts impressive. His ability to move in space was good. He played Big Ten football and Michigan State, although not great, was solid at times.
When a guy makes so many tackles and can cover, you look. I thought I had actually removed him from my picks but I erred.
The problem with this guy is that he is too short at 6′, a little too light at 243, but most importantly has great difficulty shedding blockers.
He went from a monster junior year to a very mediocre (bust would not be a stretch) senior year. He did manage a couple of int’s his senior year but tackles dropped noticeably upon second look.
I am dropping him from my top 100, as the way he makes the Giants is on special teams or a situational player in the quasi linebacker Tampa Two we run.
In defense of myself I spend literally more than a hundered hours each year watching film and probably more than another hundred on the tangibles and intangibles. I simply did not pay close enough attention beyond stats and some film which showed this player to be better than he is. Andy and Wonder gave the me heads up on this after the draft, asking about my evaluation, and I thank them for bringing it to my attention. I disagree with Wonder from time to time on certain players (last year, notably Golden Tate and Terrence Cody), but in this case I concur with his takeaway that Jones is not big enough for the inside and not fast enough for the outside.
I had been a big fan on Matthews in the third or fourth round as he is a better player than most think, as demonstrated in the championship game where he was dominant for Oregon. Philly grabbed him right before us and we should have moved up a few spots to make sure that didn’t happen.
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