The Texans offensive line in 2017 was a complete disaster, and because of that the Texans will be replacing most of their lineman in the draft and free agency. Because of this impending overhaul, a “Texans Wire” mock draft showed the Texans drafting Ohio State offensive tackle, JaMarco Jones, with their early third-round pick.
Jones, a Chicago native, stands at a towering 6’5″ and 310 pounds. At Ohio State, Jones started 27 straight games and helped the Buckeyes win the CFP national championship in 2014, a 2014 Sugar Bowl title, a 2015 Fiesta Bowl title, a 2017 Cotton Bowl title, and Big Ten Conference championships in 2014 and 2017.
Jones has also played a major role in Ohio State becoming a Top-20 rushing school for four straight years. In 2016, Jones and Ohio State were actually nominated as a finalist for the Joe Moore Offensive Line of the Year Award, which is given to the best offensive line unit in college football. He was also on the second-team of the All-Big Ten Conference team in 2016.
As the 2017 college football season rolled in, Jones continued to impress. Over the regular season, Jones’ 85.1 grade ranked first among all Big-Ten tackles, according to Pro Football Focus.
Overall, during his 904 pass-blocking attempts from 2016 to 2017, he impressively gave up just three sacks.
The Buckeye is a great prospect for the Texans because his long arms, massive size, and ability to quickly change direction. His long arms allow him to keep his space and control defenders, his massive size is good for obvious reasons, and his mobility is good for a quarterback who likes to move around in the pocket.
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All of these traits will be a perfect complement to mobile quarterback Deshaun Watson, and hopefully reduce the league-high 252 quarterback pressure the Texans gave up last season. Furthermore, his success with the Ohio State rushing offense could translate into the league, and help rejuvenate a mediocre Texans rushing offense. According to Fansided, “he also has excellent arm length which allows him to keep defenders off his body.”
The two problem with Jones are his ability to gain inside leverage and his bad balance. Jones’ sloppiness doesn’t hurt him with an edge rusher or on run-blocks, but it will if a rusher tries to get inside. So unless he improves his balance and gets rid of the sloppiness, Jones will either give up a lot of sacks to rushers trying to get inside leverage, or will garner lots of holding penalties.
In more recent news, Jones decided not to attend the Senior Bowl. Despite being invited, he turned down the offer, which increases the likelihood he’ll fall down on draft boards and land on the Texans. And if he does land on the Texans, Jones has the potential to rejuvenate the offensive line and do great things in the league.
Ohio State C/G Billy Price and OT Jamarco Jones declined Senior Bowl invitations to continue training with LeCharles Bentley — continuing the trend of Buckeye OL training with him pre-draft. Taylor Decker and Pat Elflein were previous trainees.
— J.R. (@JReidDraftScout) January 22, 2018
