Cardale Jones, one of the most intriguing prospects in this year's draft, was selected by the Buffalo Bills with No. 139 pick, the last selection of the fourth round, on Saturday.
Cardale Jones drafted by Bills in fourth round
With the last pick of the fourth round, the Bills took talented developmental quarterback Cardale Jones
Jones flirted with entering the draft last year after his impressive title run. He began the 2014 season as Ohio State's third-string QB, but following injuries to starter Braxton Miller and backup quarterback J.T. Barrett, Jones was inserted into the starting lineup for the Big Ten Championship Game.
He led Ohio State to a 59-0 shellacking of Wisconsin and was named game MVP, and then helped the Buckeyes knock off No. 1 Alabama in the Sugar Bowl and Oregon in the College Football Playoff National Championship.
Jones, however, elected to return to Ohio State for his junior season. He beat out Barrett for the starting job last summer and Miller was moved to wide receiver. The Buckeyes got off to a 7-0 start, but Barrett regained the starting job after Jones struggled under new quarterbacks coach and co-offensive coordinator Tim Beck. Beck replaced Tom Herman, who left to become Houston’s head coach, and admitted to Cleveland.com this spring that he had trouble adjusting to his new gig.
I had an nfl coach tell me he wondered how much higher Cardale Jones' stock would be if Tom Herman didn't leave OSU. https://t.co/Dn2Wp1aoLG
— Bruce Feldman (@BruceFeldmanCFB) April 25, 2016
"To me, it was a disappointment for the personal goals and things I wanted to accomplish," Jones said at the NFL Combine when asked about being benched. "But everything that happened was for the betterment of the team. My goals that I wanted to accomplish as the quarterback of the team, they don't outweigh the team's success."
Jones finished his college career a perfect 10-0 as a starter. He completed 166 of the 269 passes he threw during his three seasons at Ohio State, for 2,322 yards, to go along with 15 touchdowns and seven interceptions. He also ran for 617 rushing yards and four rushing touchdowns.
But it’s Jones’ impressive physical tools that no doubt endeared to Buffalo. He’s 6’5 and 253 pounds. He can throw a football 74 yards.
He can run and jump like a track and field star.
He’s powerful and loves contact.
The questions for Jones revolve around his lack of precision and experience. He’s also an active social media user and has found himself in the middle of some strange faux Twitter controversies. He once used the platform to ask Ronda Rousey out on a date. Another time he sent trash talk to Chicago Bulls big man Joakim Noah. He’s also tweeted shots at the NCAA and once said that he went to Ohio State for football, not school.
His college coach, Urban Meyer, has on the record that whoever drafts Jones will need to have “patience.”
While speaking to the media at the combine Jones acknowledged that NFL teams have asked him about his outspoken personality and Twitter use.
“I’ve had a couple of teams ask me about it,” Jones said. “I really had only a couple tweets that I shouldn’t have tweeted when I was younger.”
Jones is certainly a project. But rare is it that a quarterback with so much raw ability falls into the fourth round. Taking a game on him was a smart move for the Bills.
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