Defensive Tackle Bears All at the NFL Combine

Chris Jones has been proving himself for years.  A relative unknown from a small Mississippi high school, Jones “exploded” onto the scene as a senior finishing as the composite #6 defensive lineman in the country for the 2013 recruiting class.  In college, Jones was productive that year earning 1^st FR All-American honors after posting 3 sacks, 4 tackles for loss and a team leading 10 quarterback hurries.  Two so-so seasons later, Jones declared for the NFL Draft in a strong year for defensive tackles in an obvious attempt to display his impressive physical talents to the League.  On Sunday he would do much more than that at the NFL’s annual scouting Combine.

Out of a sense of responsibility to the children, I’ll refrain from embedding a video of the incident. Regardless, in a possible first for the Combine, the front seam of Mr. Jones’ spandex shorts tore during the 40 yard dash exposing his physical gifts to the world live on national TV.  Video can be found here.

The immediate question is how this might affect Jones’ draft status, so I took an informal survey from various sources around NFL front offices.  The results were telling to say the least.

BH (NFC Director of Off-The-Field Incident PR) – “This sort of thing happens to me on the treadmill all the time.  We really like the quick thinking & immediate move to the turf.  Turnovers decide games and anyone at 6’6”, 310 who jumps on loose balls like that has a spot at our 1 technique.  In addition, the move to limit exposure of his junk to the women and children watching at home is definitely something that you wouldn’t see from a showboating, choke artist like Cam Newton… he’s got respect for the game.”

JM (AFC South VP of Marketing – Central America) – “Great situational awareness but the thing we like most is how Jones keeps his hips low.  We don’t need a guy that tall who bends at the waist in the run game.  We’ll also be monitoring his reaction in the press.  We’d like to see him own up to it now that the tape is out there in the public record.”

But not all of the reaction was positive:

SW (AFC Associate Director of Scouting – Failed Heisman QBs) – “Charles Haley won 5 rings by showing his penis to everyone who couldn’t outrun him.  Flashing explosiveness < explosively flashing in our book, but Jones needs to maintain that motor.  Dropping to the turf that fast makes us question his love for the game.”

BC (NFC VP of Sponsorship / Parking Lot Management) – “If your junk falls out during a game, you’ve still got to be ready to MAKE THE PLAY.  Bailing out on the drill shows insecurity and vanity.  UNDRAFTABLE IMO.”

EH (NFC Director of Canadian Scouting) – “We immediately added nudity to our evaluation criteria after the Visanthe Shiancoe incident.  We don’t like the immediate move to the belly position either.  Aaron Donald would have taken a victory lap.  Lack of confidence says he’s a Day 3 guy to us.”

The jury is still out folks.  We’ll see what happens on Draft Day.