Personal Background

• First-Team All-American, College Football News (2018)
• First-Team All-Big Ten Conference (2018)
• First Ohio State defensive lineman on record to score two touchdowns in one season (2018)
• Starter since his second game as a freshman
• Graduated in December 2018 with a degree in Sociology
• Two-time Academic All-Big Ten Honoree and two-time OSU Scholar-Athlete
• Interned with the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) in summer of 2018
• Played only two seasons of high school football before coming to Ohio State

Courtesy of Ohio State Football.

Injury History

• Started 37 of 39 total games as a Buckeye (according to school website)
• Missed three games in 2017 due to locker room accident that cut his leg, requiring stitches (according to The Athletic)

Production

• 13 Tackles for loss and 8.5 sacks in 2018
• INT returned 28 yards for a touchdown against TCU (2018)
• Fumble recovery touchdown against Michigan State (2018)
• Led defensive linemen in tackles with 52 as a redshirt freshman (2016)

Film Reviewed

• Oregon State (2018)
• TCU (2018) – TV
• Minnesota (2018) – TV
• Nebraska (2018)
• Maryland (2018) – TV
• Washington (2018) – TV
• Penn State (2017)

Measurables (School Website)

• Height: 6’3”
• Weight: 286 lbs

Strengths

• Possesses a trim torso on a lengthy-looking frame with good to very good overall athleticism. Showcases lateral agility, good stop-start and change of direction skills, as well as explosiveness off the snap and acceleration to the QB.
• He played almost exclusively at 3-technique with some snaps at 4i- and 0/1-technique mixed in.
• Flashes the potential and ability to stand-up angle and base blocks with his length to stalemate linemen at the point of attack.

• Can initially stalemate double teams when he’s able to set his plant foot and maintain a low pad level.
• Displays good hand-eye coordination; his ability in this clip to long-arm the guard while simultaneously grabbing the man’s left wrist with his off hand is an encouraging sign of his hand usage skills.

• Plays with active hands, displaying proficiency in long-arm, arm-over, push-pull, and double swipe moves. Here’s an example of his push-pull against TCU (H/T Waldo Roren).

• Solid mental processing and vision, able to track the ball on option and misdirection runs. Is rarely fooled.
• Showcases lateral agility and quickness to beat guards on slants and win on stunts as the looper or set-up man. He also combines that lateral agility with arm-over or swipe moves to bypass blockers with regularity.

• Adept at creating space with his length and possesses an excellent closing burst to chase the QB.

• Displays the play strength to bull rush centers and smaller or short-armed guards.
• Good competitive toughness to show improvement in his overall game from 2017 to 2018.
• Plays with effort and displays a strong motor in pursuit when he has an angle on the ball carrier. Below are two plays from two consecutive drives where he shows decent to good hustle to chase the runner from behind.

pic.twitter.com/N2Y5OxyziG

— Dalton Miller (@DaltonBMiller) February 18, 2019

 

Weaknesses

• Tends to rely too much on arm-over moves. This causes him to raise his pad level more frequently, giving more body surface for offensive linemen to contact. He needs to learn to rip past blockers as opposed to swimming over them.
• Although he flashes potential in the run game, he lacks hip strength to consistently stack and shed blocks. He’s easily turned by run blockers and tends to play with a light base (H/T DeludedYinzer).

• He gives ground laterally to double teams and combo blocks because his feet are often caught at a disadvantageous angle to anchor in the ground.

• Against the run overall, on film he plays with a mentality of side-stepping or slipping by blockers instead of stacking them head-on and shedding them.
  • When he loses on those reps, it’s because that approach makes him easy to move out of the gap and seal from the play. To be fair, in the example below, he’s not responsible for the A-gap the runner moves through. This merely illustrates his mentality with regard to engaging blockers (H/T Waldo Roren).

Overall

Ultimately, Dre’Mont Jones best fits in a one-gapping scheme at the 3-technique position. His quickness and agility combined with his length and current level of hand usage will allow him to contribute as a pass-rushing under tackle his rookie year. He could start for some teams, depending on their depth chart. With more refinement and a build-up of strength, he has the talent and potential to become a premier defensive tackle in the NFL by his third season.

His Achilles heel on film is his lack of consistent physicality in the run game. He chooses a “finesse” approach of moving around blockers much more often than he moves them out of his way. This is partly because he’s a little undersized for a defensive tackle, depending on one’s scheme. And his athleticism naturally lends itself to beating blockers with speed and agility instead of power. His flashes of standing up offensive linemen or moving them out of his gap are few and far between. So, his draft stock will hinge on how teams assess his willingness and ability to play blockers straight-up with more physicality when required.

In the end, this is a player teams can win with who stands a good chance to turn into someone they win because of. Given the changing landscape of the league over the past decade with 11-personnel and nickel defenses becoming the norm, his positional value should place him squarely in the first round for teams looking for a one-gap, penetrating 3-technique. Decision-makers turned off by his film in the run game could knock him down to the second or early third round. For teams that run with more 4/4i-techniques or 2-techniques who want more beef along the interior, Jones should be low on their board, if he’s on it at all.

 

You can follow Allan on Twitter at @AllanUy22