Jan 7, 2013; Miami, FL, USA; Alabama Crimson Tide center Barrett Jones (75) signals with quarterback A.J. McCarron (10) during the game against the Notre Dame Fighting Irish during the 2013 BCS Championship game at Sun Life Stadium. Alabama won 42-14. Mandatory Credit: Matthew Emmons-USA TODAY Sports

Height: 6’4″

Weight: 306

Position Rank: 1

Drafted By: St. Louis Rams (4th round, 113th overall)

40 Yard Dash:  N/A

Bench Press:  N/A

Career Stats (via Alabama Athletic Site)

• Veteran leader of the Tide’s Offensive Line

Athletic Honors …
• 2012 Rimington Trophy (nation’s top center)
• Consensus first team All-American
• One of three finalists for Outland Trophy (nation’s top interior lineman)
• One of three finalists for Lombardi Award (nation’s top lineman or linebacker)
• 49 starts (25 at RG ’09-’10…11 at LT ’11…13 at C ’12)
• Has missed only six assignments all season (99.2%, best among OL starters, on 731 snaps)

2011
• Outland Trophy Winner
• Captued the ARA Sportsmanship Award and the Wuerffel Trophy
• Unanimous First-Team All-American (AFCA, AP, Walter Camp, FWAA, Sporting News, ESPN.com, SI.com, Rivals.com and CBSsports.com)
• First-Team All-SEC (AP & Coaches)
• Awarded Jacobs Blocking Trophy (top offensive lineman in the SEC)
• Semifinalist for the Lombardi Award
• Consensus midseason All-American
• Graded out first or second on the Alabama offensive line in nine of 10 games
• Faced seven of the nation’s top-50 defenses
• Played four positions along the offensive line this season, including center
• Only position he didn’t play was right guard, where he started 25 games during his first two years
• Graded out at 90 percent or better in four games
• Missed only nine assignments in 587 snaps (98.5 percent on assignments)
• Was 100 percent on assignments in four games this season
• Allowed just three sacks all season
• Started 35 career games at right guard (25) and left tackle (10 in 2011)
• SEC Offensive Lineman of the Week (Arkansas)
• Two-time UA Offensive Player of the Week

Academic Honors …
• CoSIDA/Capital One Academic All-American of the Year
• 2012 William V. Campbell Award (known as the “Academic Heisman”)
• Four-year Academic All-American
• 4.0 cumulative GPA throughout his nine semesters (bachelors May ’11, masters Dec. ’12; both accounting)

Scouting Report/Player Notes

Jones will be exposed as a senior, as are all returning players with extremely high expectations, but he has been a force and a stalwart on the Alabama offensive line. He has started at left tackle, guard, and is expected to be one of the best centers in the country in 2012. Won the Outland Trophy as a junior, given to the nation’s best interior lineman. On a line full of talent like Alabama’s, that is some recognition. Jones is an incredible leader on and off the field who is a fantastic student as well. Unanimous first team All-American starting at left tackle among other positions in 2011, and has also started two years at right guard. Reliable starter who would be starting for some team in the NFL on opening day 2012 had he decided to leave early for the draft, which he considered. Really a prospect you can’t go wrong with here, a guy who has 10-year starter written all over him at the NFL level, be it at right tackle or on the interior as a guard.

Video Highlights (via YouTube)

This one is for all the marbles..unless Alabama wins then who knows?

Tomorrow the “National Championship Game” will occur between the Alabama Crimson Tide and LSU Tigers. I don’t have a big of an issue with the game as many people do, but clearly if Alabama wins there will be a lot of dissension among college football voters, some even acknowledging that they won’t vote for Alabama to be National Champions even if they win the game. As a side note: if people hated the idea of having these two be in the title game they could have done something about it in the polls, I  may be wrong but I thought Oklahoma State might have been number  two in the computers it was the human polls that put Alabama back in the game.

Anyway, with all that being written, it’s clear that there are bevy of draft prospects that will be drafted from both teams. Between the two starting defenses (22 players) there may be as many as 20 draft-able prospects over the next two or three drafts, which is borderline insane.

The best linemen prospects in this game, however, are all redshirt sophomores so it will be interesting to see how many, if any, declare for the 2012 nfl draft.

To start things off we’ll talk about the LSU defensive line vs the Alabama offensive line and we’ll have many more of these types of previews over today and tomorrow.

NFL mocks is all about draftable prospects so let’s start there.

The Alabama Crimson Tide have two linemen who will receive grades between the first and second round in this draft if they decide to come out though there are whispers/reports that neither one will.

The first is versatile offensive linemen Barrett Jones (scouting report). The last time Alabama and LSU played Jones got injured early (but still played) before that though Jones shows better than anticipated athleticism against arguably the best defensive line in the country. Jones is a player who has been asked to play all along the line and has done well wherever he’s played (except he hasn’t played center). Jones is quicker than he often gets credit for, who really does a good job of getting to the second level to make blocks in space. At 6’5 311 pounds he doesn’t have ideal size and his arm length could be criticized a bit, but a really solid player.

On the other side is the talented redshirt sophomore D.J. Fluker. Fluker has great size at 6’6 335 pounds and really plus athletic ability, he’ll be in the conversation as a first round pick if he decides to wait until next year.

In the middle of the Crimson Tide line is one of the best centers in the class in Will Vlachos (scouting report). Vlacho is smart and will do a great job on Sundays making all of the calls along the offensive line. He’s really short for an OL at 6’1, which is less of a problem for centers and isn’t a great athlete. He is however, gritty and strong. He’s hard to move off his space, but he can be taken advantage of by longer defensive linemen.

On LSU there are a tremendous trio of redshirt sophomores who could all be first round picks next year (they are that good). The first is DT Michael Brockers. Brockers is the redshirt sophomore I think is most NFL ready, even though he has things to improve on too. He’s really long and lean and could even add more weight to is 6’6 306 pound frame. Brockers can play in the N.F.L. right now as a run stopper, though he has a ways to go as a pass rusher. Plays with great functional strength.

Barkevious Mingo (video  of him)

Mingo has a name that sounds like it came straight from J. K. Rowlin’s Harry Potter, and you could say you can see his magic on the field. Mingo is a terrific athlete who is long, lean and fluid. At 6’5 240 pounds, he doesn’t yet have the size to play defensive end at the N.F.L. level, but if he decides to declare for the 2012 N.F.L. draft could easily work himself into the first round discussion with his physical abilities and a down pass rusher class. But he has the speed and natural pass rush abilities to likely be one of our top 15 prospects heading into the 2013 N.F.l. draft.He will often be up against D.J. Fluker

Sam Montgomery (draft breakdown video of him)

If you manage to stop Brocker and Mingo then you still have to contend with LSU most statistically productive pass rusher Sam Montgomery. This year Montgomery has 9 sacks. Listed at 6’4 245 pounds, he’s another guy who doesn’t yet have the bulk to play down every play as a 43 defensive end. But is another guy who has tremendous speed and hustle. He’s also done a good job of playing with leverage.He will draw Barret Jones tomorrow.

Bennie Logan DT

Just when you thought LSU had enough talented sophomores who could end up being first round picks they throw another one at you. You begin to see why they are the #1 team in the Nation. Logan is 6’3 287 pounds. He’s also a redshirt sophomore and draft eligible this year.

There you have it folks if you’re looking for linemen in 2012 (or sounds like maybe 2013) this is the game for you. Alabama’s offensive linemen are talented and among the best in the country while on the other side of the ball LSU’s defensive linemen (projected 34 OLB) are extremely talented. I don’t see any scenario in which Vlachos ends up in the first round, but the other six linemen could all eventually be drafted in the first round of the 2012 or 2013 N.F.l. draft.

Follow us on twitter @NFLmocks

Dwight Jones WR North Carolina

Tonight the 8-1 San Francisco 49ers will head to Baltimore to take on the Ravens. The most interesting story line in this game is probably the fact that the opposing head coaches are brothers. But this is NFLMocks.com where we’re thinking draft the whole year. What kind of players would i expect the 49ers to draft if the draft were today.

The 49ers have a pick in each round, though with the free agent losses of David Baas, Franklin, Manny Lawson and the discount signings of Donte Whtiner and Braylon Edwards I am guessing the 49ers end up with some fairly nice compensatory picks. Maybe two fourths or something.

I’m going to assume the 49ers are picking in the mid to late twenties.

For all of our scouting reports head on over to our scouting report page

1st round: Dwight Jones, WR, North Carolina

I think there are two real good options here for the 49ers based on the talent level of this class. They can end up with the bottom end of the tier one for cornerbacks, or the top end of the tier two for wide receivers. In this scenario I go with a WR. The 49ers don’t have a long term investment in Braylon Edwards and Michael Crabtree hasn’t been great this year.

Jones is a big bodied guy who can make plays down the field while Michael Crabtree controls the short to intermediate part of the field. Jones doesn’t have game-breaking speed, but he’s a good player, probably the fourth best WR in this class and the last WR that has good #1 WR potential.

(more…)

Barrett Jones is a versatile OL that will find a good home somewhere in the N.F.L.

Time for a little Morning morning draft stock watch. Here are some players who helped their stock over the weekend.I focused on the big games (Alabama and LSU, and Oklahoma and Texas A and M.

Stock up:

Barrett Jones, OL, Alabama-

Jones played very well vs LSU especially in the first half when he was healthy. LSU has some serious speed on the defensive line, but Jones showed an ability to mirror his man and he really got to the second level well in the run game. I think he proved that he could be a fringe first round pick and likely early day two pick for a team looking for Tackle help, or interior offensive line help.

Morris Claiborne, CB, LSU

Twitter was all abuzz  with people declaring Morris Claiborne a lock for the top five now with an impressive game vs Alabama, though I’m not ready to go that far. It’s clear that of all the players in College Football, Morris Claiborne’s stock has probably improved the most since the beginning of the season. He showed up big time vs a big opponent and it will get him drafted likely in the first half of the first round.

(more…)