Recruit Breakdown: Jamarco Jones

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Ceiling: 9               Ranking: 8.25               Floor: 5


School: De La Salle Institute (Chicago, ILL)

Size: 6'5" - 290 lbs.

Composite: 4 Star, #4 OT, #49 Overall

247: 4 Star, 97, #5 OT, #42 Overall

Rivals: 4 Star, 5.9, #13 OT, #97 Overall

Scout: 4 Star, #6 OT, #52 Overall

Favorites: Ohio State (Commit)

Other Notable Offers: Michigan, Michigan St, Notre Dame, Arizona St, Arkansas, Cal, Florida, FSU, Georgia Tech, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Maryland, Miss St, Nebraska, Northwestern, Oklahoma, Ole Miss, Purdue, Tennessee, UCLA, Vandy, Virginia, Wisconsin

 Strengths
Mammoth body that moves well, especially forward. Can pull around the line as his straight speed is good for his size. Great, great down blocker. Gets under pads of kids that are much smaller than him, get into body, latches on, and drives. Very physical player that lifts defenders off their feet upon his initial pop and eats them (not literally, usually). Gets defenders turned and off balance well. Thick lower body build, squatty legs that uproot anyone inside of him; bends well at the knees. Great contact between feet and ground (not on his toes or sides of feet) allowing him to get lots of surface area to increase power when driving. Keeps feet driving after contact. Plays through whistle. Very good run block technique at his stage.

Weaknesses
Does not have great lateral speed. Drop step and kick are a bit slow. Does not have length that is wanted for pass protection on the edge as the pass rush should be able to get arms outstretched and into him. Not extremely quick first step, which makes him struggle to reach block and to get his first drop in pass pro.

Comments
Will be a dominant run blocker at the next level. Has very good technique in that area of his game for a high school lineman, but also possesses all the size to utilize it very well. Gets very low and does a great job of latching on and uprooting defenders. He's better suited moving forward, either down blocking or turning and pulling. Lateral speed will be an issue on the outside and particularly in pass protection. Not an extremely long athlete, more squatty and compact, despite a 6'5" frame. Not extremely long arms.

My opinion on Jones is that he would be a great guard prospect, but I don't see him as a future LT prospect. Great, powerful leverage, pretty good at pulling and trapping, gets into defenders body while run blocking. But I don't think he has the lateral quickness, nimble feet, or length to play LT. Also probably needs to work on hand placement as he won't simply be able to pancake college kids (technique stuff is almost always going to be raw for high school linemen though). Could play some RT at the college level, but I think his optimal position is RG (though could easily play either OG spot), both in terms of highest floor and highest ceiling. Looks like he could be really good at rooting out DTs and be an All-B1G type player.

Projection
I think he fits better in an offense that runs more man blocking schemes, though he would also be good on inside-zone runs. As I've said previously, I think he is more of an OG than an OT (though he could fit in at RT in a crunch), but I think it would be a shame to put him in a predominately zone blocking scheme, particular one that forces him to do outside zone blocking. He can succeed in that scheme, no doubt, but he appears to be very good down blocking and at pulling around the edge. I think a team that mixes up their blocking schemes and allows him to pull and lead a RB around the edge or through the hole is going to maximize his potential. He's very good at latching on to guys and driving them out, would be very good at trapping and kicking out DEs while pulling as well. Being on the backside of a zone blocking scheme would force him to do more reaching and scrapping to the LB level, which I think he could do well, but not at the same very high level he's capable of doing other things, at least not right away. At the end of the day, I simply think he's better suited at latching on to someone and driving them where he wants rather than sliding and sealing and working to the second level.

My rating above projects him as a OG in an optimal system for him. His ceiling as a OT is probably a little lower, around an 8, and my projection would drop to a 6.5 or 7. In a predominately zone scheme, my projection would be closer to a 7.5. Floor would remain the same as he'd still be able to slide inside if OT didn't work.

Comments

  1. AnonymousJune 6, 2013 at 8:26 PM

    Why do you think some people call him a tackle prospect?

    ReplyDelete
  2. Space CoyoteJune 6, 2013 at 10:07 PM

    A couple reasons: 1) Because he plays tackle in high school; 2) He'll likely get a shot at RT before ultimately moving inside. He potentially could make a pretty good RT with the right focus, but I think his best position is inside. Most highly regarded O-linemen are listed as OTs, because at many schools that may be what they are because they are the best on the team, but on the teams Jones is looking at, I think OG is in his future.

    ReplyDelete

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