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I believe Schneider when he said a team called him, and said this was a great pick. That's what people don't realize about the draft. Just because your team took a guy in the 3rd when he was projected in the 5th doesn't mean other teams didn't like him or he would have been available later. Some times it happens, but more likely than not, teams slot guys correctly (see Justin Harrell). Tough upbringing. Went to San Jose State over Washington and Washington State because his Mom had a tumor.
Jones joins race for No. 3 receiver
By Pete Dougherty
pdougher@greenbaypressgazette.com
The Green Bay Packers have to hope rookie receiver James Jones is a diamond unearthed in last weekend’s NFL draft.
General Manager Ted Thompson has put great faith in his scouting acumen by drafting the relatively anonymous Jones after not signing any receivers in free agency or offering enough to acquire Randy Moss in a trade.
Thompson badly needs to upgrade a pedestrian receiving corps behind starters Donald Driver and Greg Jennings, and he could have used a higher pick in that quest. Besides not selecting a receiver in the first round, he decided not to spend his second-round pick, No. 47 overall, on USC’s Steve Smith, opting instead to trade back. Then, with the early third-round pick obtained in the deal, No. 78 overall, he made Jones the 14th receiver off the board in the receiver-rich draft.
In so doing, Thompson tabbed Jones as a prime candidate for the No. 3 receiving job in an offense that finished 22nd in the NFL in scoring last season.
Jones is competing with an undistinguished group that includes Robert Ferguson, fifth-round pick David Clowney, Ruvell Martin, Carlyle Holiday and Shaun Bodiford.
“That’s what I’m here for, I’m here to win a job,” Jones said. “It starts now. College career, that was just me interviewing. Now I got hired, and it starts now for me to compete for a job.”
Jones was the most surprising of Thompson’s 11 selections in this year’s draft. Despite being a first-day pick, he was little known outside the scouting community and regarded as a late-round pick by some, if not many, teams.
Though Jones caught 70 passes last season and has good size for the position (6-foot-¾, 207 pounds), he ran the 40-yard dash in only 4.6 seconds at the NFL scouting combine. He improved that a little at his campus workout, when he ran in the 4.55 range, depending on which team timed him.
John Schneider, the Packers’ personnel analyst to the GM, said he’s talked with scouts from a number of teams, and their grades on Jones varied greatly.
“I think either you had him (in the third or high fourth round) or you were turned off because he didn’t run especially well at the combine,” Schneider said. “But I know when we took him, there was one team that called and said, ‘Great pick, best hands in the draft.’”
The Packers picked Jones at No. 78 after a major run on receivers -- four in a row were selected from Nos. 73 through 76 (Jacoby Jones, Yamon Figures, Laurent Robinson and Jason Hill). Two picks later, the Packers took Jones because they thought he was one of the strongest, most physical receivers in the draft, both in catching the ball in a crowd and breaking tackles while running after the catch.
There are other strong, physical receivers who have done well in the NFL despite running the 40 poorly, most notably Arizona’s Anquan Boldin, who ran a stunningly slow 4.73-second 40 at the scouting combine. But Boldin caught 101 passes as a rookie and has become one of the NFL’s best receivers in his four years in the league. Boldin and Jones are similar in height, though Boldin was slightly heavier coming out of college, weighing 216 pounds to Jones’ 207.
To project Jones as a Boldin-quality player is unrealistic. Boldin was a second-round pick and the rare receiver who excelled as a rookie. The Packers drafted Jones higher than pundits and many teams predicted because they think his physical strength offsets his lack of pure speed.
“There’s all different types of receivers,” Schneider said, “and he fits the mold of a power receiver: drops his hips, run after the catch, takes the ball out of the air, he’s aggressive to the ball. Those are the things that stood out to us. When you watch him play -- I’m sure people had (his 40 at) a certain range, low 4.5s to high 4.5s -- but he has very good game tempo. That’s what attracted us.”
Another red flag for some teams was Jones’ low score, a 9, on the Wonderlic intelligence test. That’s usually not a deal breaker, but it does compel teams to investigate the player’s ability to absorb a playbook.
In interviews with Jones and people in the San Jose State football program, the Packers determined he is serious about football and is emotionally mature.
Jones also said he prepared poorly for the Wonderlic. His agent gave him a practice copy, but he answered the 50-question test at his leisure rather than under the pressure of the test’s 12-minute time limit. He said when he saw a copy of the test after he took it at the scouting combine, he realized the errors he made in his haste.
“A lot of words you miss while you’re trying to go through it real fast,” he said. “I went back and read it again and I’m like, ‘Oh, that’s what it said.’ I wish I would have taken my time more at the combine, but a Wonderlic test really can’t tell how a person can play football. I understand the plays.”
Jones might have gained some of his maturity and hunger for NFL success from a difficult upbringing in San Jose, where for about four years he, his sister and mother lived in homeless shelters while she unsuccessfully tried to find an apartment she could afford.
He then moved in with his grandmother for all four years of high school.
Jones said he was offered scholarship by Washington and Washington State of the Pac-10 Conference but turned those down because he wanted to stay near his mother, who had a 24-pound tumor in her stomach at the time he was choosing college. She had surgery -- “It was the size of a football,” Jones said -- and has been healthy since.
“You go through all that for a reason,” Jones said. “It made me a better person, it made me understand that the little things matter a lot. You understand that you can’t always have millions (of dollars), you can’t always have big houses, fancy cars. You just have to appreciate whatever you get.”
Jones joins race for No. 3 receiver
By Pete Dougherty
pdougher@greenbaypressgazette.com
The Green Bay Packers have to hope rookie receiver James Jones is a diamond unearthed in last weekend’s NFL draft.
General Manager Ted Thompson has put great faith in his scouting acumen by drafting the relatively anonymous Jones after not signing any receivers in free agency or offering enough to acquire Randy Moss in a trade.
Thompson badly needs to upgrade a pedestrian receiving corps behind starters Donald Driver and Greg Jennings, and he could have used a higher pick in that quest. Besides not selecting a receiver in the first round, he decided not to spend his second-round pick, No. 47 overall, on USC’s Steve Smith, opting instead to trade back. Then, with the early third-round pick obtained in the deal, No. 78 overall, he made Jones the 14th receiver off the board in the receiver-rich draft.
In so doing, Thompson tabbed Jones as a prime candidate for the No. 3 receiving job in an offense that finished 22nd in the NFL in scoring last season.
Jones is competing with an undistinguished group that includes Robert Ferguson, fifth-round pick David Clowney, Ruvell Martin, Carlyle Holiday and Shaun Bodiford.
“That’s what I’m here for, I’m here to win a job,” Jones said. “It starts now. College career, that was just me interviewing. Now I got hired, and it starts now for me to compete for a job.”
Jones was the most surprising of Thompson’s 11 selections in this year’s draft. Despite being a first-day pick, he was little known outside the scouting community and regarded as a late-round pick by some, if not many, teams.
Though Jones caught 70 passes last season and has good size for the position (6-foot-¾, 207 pounds), he ran the 40-yard dash in only 4.6 seconds at the NFL scouting combine. He improved that a little at his campus workout, when he ran in the 4.55 range, depending on which team timed him.
John Schneider, the Packers’ personnel analyst to the GM, said he’s talked with scouts from a number of teams, and their grades on Jones varied greatly.
“I think either you had him (in the third or high fourth round) or you were turned off because he didn’t run especially well at the combine,” Schneider said. “But I know when we took him, there was one team that called and said, ‘Great pick, best hands in the draft.’”
The Packers picked Jones at No. 78 after a major run on receivers -- four in a row were selected from Nos. 73 through 76 (Jacoby Jones, Yamon Figures, Laurent Robinson and Jason Hill). Two picks later, the Packers took Jones because they thought he was one of the strongest, most physical receivers in the draft, both in catching the ball in a crowd and breaking tackles while running after the catch.
There are other strong, physical receivers who have done well in the NFL despite running the 40 poorly, most notably Arizona’s Anquan Boldin, who ran a stunningly slow 4.73-second 40 at the scouting combine. But Boldin caught 101 passes as a rookie and has become one of the NFL’s best receivers in his four years in the league. Boldin and Jones are similar in height, though Boldin was slightly heavier coming out of college, weighing 216 pounds to Jones’ 207.
To project Jones as a Boldin-quality player is unrealistic. Boldin was a second-round pick and the rare receiver who excelled as a rookie. The Packers drafted Jones higher than pundits and many teams predicted because they think his physical strength offsets his lack of pure speed.
“There’s all different types of receivers,” Schneider said, “and he fits the mold of a power receiver: drops his hips, run after the catch, takes the ball out of the air, he’s aggressive to the ball. Those are the things that stood out to us. When you watch him play -- I’m sure people had (his 40 at) a certain range, low 4.5s to high 4.5s -- but he has very good game tempo. That’s what attracted us.”
Another red flag for some teams was Jones’ low score, a 9, on the Wonderlic intelligence test. That’s usually not a deal breaker, but it does compel teams to investigate the player’s ability to absorb a playbook.
In interviews with Jones and people in the San Jose State football program, the Packers determined he is serious about football and is emotionally mature.
Jones also said he prepared poorly for the Wonderlic. His agent gave him a practice copy, but he answered the 50-question test at his leisure rather than under the pressure of the test’s 12-minute time limit. He said when he saw a copy of the test after he took it at the scouting combine, he realized the errors he made in his haste.
“A lot of words you miss while you’re trying to go through it real fast,” he said. “I went back and read it again and I’m like, ‘Oh, that’s what it said.’ I wish I would have taken my time more at the combine, but a Wonderlic test really can’t tell how a person can play football. I understand the plays.”
Jones might have gained some of his maturity and hunger for NFL success from a difficult upbringing in San Jose, where for about four years he, his sister and mother lived in homeless shelters while she unsuccessfully tried to find an apartment she could afford.
He then moved in with his grandmother for all four years of high school.
Jones said he was offered scholarship by Washington and Washington State of the Pac-10 Conference but turned those down because he wanted to stay near his mother, who had a 24-pound tumor in her stomach at the time he was choosing college. She had surgery -- “It was the size of a football,” Jones said -- and has been healthy since.
“You go through all that for a reason,” Jones said. “It made me a better person, it made me understand that the little things matter a lot. You understand that you can’t always have millions (of dollars), you can’t always have big houses, fancy cars. You just have to appreciate whatever you get.”
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