Last year, Gm Jason Licht made an under the radar pickup by getting DE Howard Jones right after preseason had ended. Jones started the season on the practice squad before being called up in week 5 in which he had 2 sacks in his first game. Jones became a regular contributor and ended the season with 5 sacks as a rookie. Jones is another small school guy playing division 2 football at Shepard University, where he set the school record for sacks with 34.5. Jones is really athletic as he was a receiver coming out of high school and was converted to linebacker at Shepard. He put on over 50lbs during his time there and is still raw as defensive player now in the NFL. However, having 4.54 40 and 40.5 inch vertical really helps Jones overcome technique issues and allows him to win on just pure athleticism.
Jones is still figuring things out on defense as he is still very raw with his hand technique and overall pass rush game, if he can find a consistency there the Bucs could have something special. Jones has good size at 6'2 238lbs along with long arms at 34 inches making him similar to Von Miller or Khalil Mack type. Jones still could probably add another 10 to 12 pounds to fill out his frame, which would make him stronger and could be more of every down type DE. The good news for Jones is he has a great defensive line coach in Jay Hayes who should make everyone better on the defensive line. Another good thing is Jones is a perfect fit for this new defense that Mike Smith is going to bring in which we will see more multiple looks meaning some 3-4 fronts at various times. Jones could easily become standup guy in a 3-4 playing a hybrid role as a outside linebacker/defensive end type player.
Howard Jones has all the tools to become something in this league, lets hope with Jay Hayes now on the staff, he can become a consistent player and provide some edge rush which this team could use heading into the 2016 season.
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