If you don’t know how we feel about Green Bay Packers defensive end Datone Jones, we can best sum it up in one word.
Underwhelmed.
And that’s being polite.
I have explained on several occasions how Jones is the weakest link among the team’s starters. Jones has produced 31 tackles and five sacks over his two NFL seasons. And that would be fine, if he were a former fifth-round pick who’s a backup defensive tackle.
But Jones is a former first-round pick who was handed a starting job in his second season and has pretty much made zero impact since arriving in Green Bay.
But this is Datone Jones’ year!
Hell, it better be. If Jones doesn’t do anything in his third season, then we’ve got something for him. Something we prepared following his first season in Green Bay and have been keeping handy since.
A nice, fat label with four letters scrawled across it.
B-U-S-T.
If Jones can’t prove himself this year, then he’s clearly not going to do anything at all.
That doesn’t appear to be lost on anyone on or surrounding the Packers. So of course, here’s the “This is Datone Jones’ Year” story.
In it, Jones tells us how, you know, there’s a great player just waiting to bust out.
“I felt like when I was healthy and I was at full-go, I was able to show guys this is what Datone Jones could provide,” Jones said. “This is what he could do. This is how effective he could be. You’re watching a really good guy in the making.”
Yeah, so that really good guy better show up.
It already appears the Packers will be content to give Jones’ snaps to Letroy Guion if he doesn’t improve.
And if that happens, then you’ve got another first-round miss playing out that rookie deal and drifting off into oblivion.
I liked Datone when we drafted him because he talked about wanting to be the best, now he’s talking about himself in the third person.
This guy has been invisible, except one every fifty plays he flashes and then celebrates like an idiot to make sure we all know it was Datone Jones who touched the quarterback after he slipped in the pocket, or blocked an extra point in a thirty point blow out.
I’m pretty certain this guy was, is, and will be a bust.
I think he’s too light for 3-4 DE so he has a hard time fighting through blocks
That’s correct. Jones is actually a DE in a 4-3, like
Nick Perry. But Jones is sleeker, moves in space
better, and has a smaller butt than Perry. If
either is going to play OLB, it should
be Jones. Of course all this misses the obvious
solution–move to a 4-3, draft CJ Mosley for the
middle, CM and Peppers on the outside, Jones
and Perry at DE. But cheap Ted wouldn’t move
up in the draft in 2014, he loves those 3,4,5
round picks too much.
“…. that would be fine, if he were a former fifth-round pick who’s a backup defensive tackle”.
This pretty much describes Boyd… who came out of the same draft… and is a better player than Jones.
“Underwhelming” Monty???
I thought you would say “Garbage”
I still like Datone. His 3rd season will pleasantly surprise Packers fans.
There’s something about a DE talking about himself in the 3rd person that I really, really, really don’t like. I had significantly more hope for him before I read that quote
Datone Jones may end up being a bust, but it is inaccurate to say he has had no impact.
Datone was drafted for one reason: he was the fastest DE available. The Packers were tired of having athletic QBs, namely Colin Kaepernick, run around and by them and drafted Jones signaling an obvious paradigm shift on the defensive line.
The Seattle game in the playoffs and how we contained and terrorized Russell Wilson illustrated that shift coming to fruition. Was Datone a huge part of the performance in that game? No. But he was part of the philosophy change that led to that performance.
It wasn’t just his speed, but his height. The knock on the Packers was that their defensive lineman were too short.
People bash Nick Perry, but Datone Jones has had far less impact. Perry has had a sack or forced fumble at key times in games. Jones has had very, very few big plays.
And remember during his rookie camp, this writers were saying he was going to be a big deal.
Another example of a modern day Ted Thompson 1st round pick.
Like Ha Ha Clinton-Dix?
Personally MMTTDCSUCK thinks that Datone Jones is full of himself. That is what I, MMTTDCSUCK believes . . .