It’s draft week! It’s been a long offseason but we’ve finally arrived at the week of the NFL Draft, perhaps the most exciting week of the offseason. I’ve got just a few more draft profile pieces to do and then on Thursday night/Friday morning we’ll have actual picks to break down. If you’re a new subscriber, I will typically do a post breaking down the first-round pick for Friday morning and then work periodically throughout the next week or so breaking down each player the Commanders pick with their own individual post.
For examples of this, you can check out this piece to see how I broke down Jahan Dotson’s skill set and then a few hours after that piece, I broke down how he fit into the offense.
So if you’re not a subscriber, now is the perfect time to subscribe ahead of the next week or two of breakdowns on the players the Commanders end up drafting. The Snyder selling celebration sale is still running until Sunday, so this is the last week of the discounted subscription price with 30% off for up to 12 months.
Anyway, that’s all for later in the week. Today, I thought I’d circle back to one more offensive tackle. I’ve already written about most of the top tackle prospects, but one that has been linked to Washington in a few trade down scenarios and sometimes in the second round is Ohio State’s Dawand Jones. I’ve broken down some big players in this draft class but nothing compares to the monstrous Jones. At the combine, Jones measured in at 6-foot-8, 374 pounds with over 36-inch arms and nearly 12-inch hands.
That length is something that stands out immediately when watching him. Very few pass rushers can match his length and reach. For some perspective, Montez Sweat is one of the more freaky athletes in recent years and he still has about an inch less reach than Jones. This is a big asset for Jones as he reach defenders and keep them at arm's length without them being able to reach his chest and do anything about it.
Here’s a great example of his length. The Georgia edge rusher looks to burst up the field and work around the man-mountain that is Dawand Jones. Despite being so big, Jones gets out of his stance well and cuts off the speed rush, forcing the defender to transition to a different plan. Jones then extends his arms and gets both hands on the defender. The defender attempts to use the principle that one arm is longer than two, meaning if he gets side on and stretches out one arm, he’ll have longer reach than if he’s square to the blocker and trying to reach with both hands.
However, despite that principle, Jones still has too much length for him. The defender attempts to get his inside hand on Jones’s chest, but just can’t reach as long as Jones has his hands on him. The only thing he can reach is the facemask, which has shoves and should have been called a penalty, but Jones has no issues completely locking up the defender regardless.
Because of that length and size, Jones tends to dominate defenders once he gets his hands on them. He’ll often use a quick set or at least look to throw his hands at the defender early to stun them and cut off any rush to the edge. If those punches land, he then has the ability to latch on and take control.
On this play, Jones doesn’t quite use a quick set in that he doesn’t step towards the defender off the snap. But he also doesn’t step backwards with a kick slide and give up any ground either. He comes off the snap and waits for the defender to take his first step just to close that gap a little before quickly firing his hands inside. He lands both hands on the chest of the defender, which stuns the initial rush before he then latches on to gain full control. Jones then looks to lock out his arms at full extension, knowing the defender won’t be able to match his length.
The defender tries to grab Jones’s wrists to try and clear his hands, but Jones is too strong. By gaining such control of the block so early, Jones is able to maintain the depth of the pocket, allowing the quarterback plenty of room to his side to set up and step fully into the throw. From a Commanders perspective, this would be a strong trait to have in front of a quarterback like Sam Howell. Howell is a smaller quarterback and smaller quarterbacks benefit from lineman that can maintain blocks near the line of scrimmage and allow them depth in the pocket to see over them.
To go along with his length and strength, Jones shows off some nice hand fighting techniques that proved to be extremely effective against a variety of rushers.
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