One NFL Network analyst believes that Cardale Jones may go earlier in the draft than most expect
The 2016 NFL Draft isn’t considered to be really stacked with top-tier quarterback talent, and that’s why most experts see a lot of them going in the later rounds, possibly the fourth and beyond. One of the quarterbacks that many believe will not be an early pick is former Ohio State quarterback Cardale Jones, but one NFL Network analyst thinks the possibility is there he goes sooner than some think.
NFL Network’s Daniel Jeremiah did recently recognize that Jones is considered someone who could be taken off the board somewhere around the fourth round, but he could most certainly see the former Buckeye gone before we even hit the third round this spring.
“I think a lot of people say fourth round, maybe a little later — he got benched this season — I’m going to put him in the second round,” Jeremiah said via NFL.com. “It might be the bottom of the second round, but there’s going to be a quarterback coach (or) an offensive coordinator who is going to go to the GM and say, ‘This guy has such rare physical tools, give me some time to work with him, I will get it out of him.'”
Jones had one of the best three-game stretches in the history of college football as a starting quarterback in 2014, taking the reins of the Ohio State offense at the most crucial time in the season and leading them to a Big Ten title, a College Football Playoff win over Alabama and then a title game win over Oregon. Because of that, he was anointed the starter over J.T. Barrett in 2015, but that didn’t last long as he struggled mightily before riding the bench for good.
But, Jeremiah really isn’t wrong here in his thinking. While Jones did struggle on the field last year, there will be coaches around the NFL who will be salivating over the tools that he does possess and will be more than willing to take a chance on developing him over the course of a few years.
Time will tell where Jones does end up being taken by an NFL team, but it’s definitely not out of the realm of possibility to believe that he’s off the board that Friday.
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