2016 NFL Draft: Scouting notes on Cardale Jones in his games against Indiana and Penn State — One of the dark horses of the quarterback class…
Ohio State quarterback Cardale Jones is one of the most interesting players in the 2016 NFL Draft. After an insane run in the 2014-15 College Football Playoff, Jones took the starting job from former Big Ten offensive player of the year Braxton Miller and 2014 Heisman candidate J.T. Barrett.
Urban Meyer put his chips in the Cardale basket, and it didn’t pan out the way they’d hoped. Jones struggled in the games he started, and eventually, Meyer put his trust back into J.T. Barrett, causing the out-of-control hype train on Cardale to finally derail.
As he heads into the NFL, I wanted to take a look at what went on in some of Jones’ 2015 tape. What changed between the CFB Playoff and the regular season? Here are the games I studied…
Scouting Notes
- Jones, in these game tapes, is missing some of the throws he should be making in his sleep. The Ohio State offense is set up so that he will excel with quick passes and in these games, he’s missing on slants, curls, and outs. The accuracy is just ever-so-slightly off. He’s hitting on the swing passes to Ezekiel Elliott, but missing on some of the easier ones. As a result, the Ohio State offense doesn’t do much in the early goings of games.
- There are times you see Jones hold on to the ball too long. He’s athletic, strong, and hard to bring down, so maybe he felt like he could take the time he needed to wait for routes to develop downfield. At any rate, he will have to make quicker decisions with the ball in the NFL.
- You can’t help but be awed by Jones’ arm strength and overall size. He’s physically unlike most quarterbacks that come into the league.
- Jones’ ability to put zip on the ball and to also know when to put touch on it is a good sign. He has a good feel for when to fire the ball in and when to put air under it.
- I think Jones has pretty good pocket presence, for as much as he struggled at times taking sacks or missing easier throws.
Overall Thoughts
In the NFL, Jones is going to need a year to get coached up. He’s going to be older as a rookie, but he also doesn’t even have a full year of college experience at least in terms of starting for a consistent year. The competition at Ohio State was fierce this past year, and Urban Meyer had the luxury of going to J.T. Barrett if/when Jones slipped up.
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The playoff run Jones had is going to intrigue NFL teams, and depending on what kind of level of optimism you have, you might see a guy in 2015 who has some of the best potential at QB in this class or a guy who simply is a physical marvel that can’t hack it at QB.
I personally think there is no QB in this draft that is capable of doing the things Jones is capable of doing, but whether or not his potential is realized remains to be seen. He made the decision to go back to school in 2015 after his big playoff run, and that could wind up costing him a lot of money, but now we all are able to see much clearer the things he needed to work on, the weaknesses he has.
I’m excited to see him in an NFL camp, hopefully with some of the best QB gurus in the league. The potential is there, he just has to learn how to excel at the little things.