A lot of Spartys thought that Jones would be a 2nd round pick. What does anyone think of where he fell to? I like his talent and I think he became a value in the 4th round. I know he's a different player than the guy we drafted in the 5th, but I'll be mad as hell if Jones pans out and our 5th round pick is a bust... Thoughts...

I was suprised to see him fall. I usually we see guys who produce in big schools get drafted earlier because presumably they have proven themselves against better talent. This year it seemed a lot of seemingly good talent fell inthe draft and out of the draft completely for potential players from "no name" schools. I wonder if the NFL is opening up to ponential more, or I'm just smoking crack and this year seems like it happened more than usual.

Jones seemed to free fall after the Combines, which tells me that teams saw things they didn't like. I know his forty time was surprisingly slow, and he looked rather mediocre during the position drills.

Based on his production at MSU, I would have thought of him as a solid third or fourth rounder. But the fact that so many other teams didn't see it that way leaves you wondering. Same thing goes for Quan Sturdivant. I saw him as a solid third rounder, maybe a late second. Time will tell...

To date I'll give myself a (small) pat on the back for this one... I know it's not a big deal, but I'd much rather have Greg Jones thus far than Doug Hogue.

A pat on the back for what? I'm just curious where you think he did a good job.

Beats me too. He had what, 31 tackles.

21

What? Because Greg Jones saw the field just a bit more? Late round prospects are developmental. That means taking a player who has raw potential, rather than a complete resume. Jones was pretty much a known commodity, little room for continued growth. Hogue, on the other hand, is far more athletic than Jones and has only been playing linebacker for a couple years.

Personally, I would have preferred Hogue in the draft at that point. If we had taken Jones earlier to be our starting MLB, then I would be OK with that. But obviously the guys in Allen Park were not convinced of his being able to handle the job. It's way too early to call either guy a bust, but to be impressed by Jones lackluster performance in 2011 means you are setting the bar pretty damn low.

i think teams saw Jones as a 2 down middle linebacker and thats why he fell. the football instincts and the way he reads and diagnoses play is exceptional though. he was a good pick in rd 6. Hogue has good speed and size for a 5th rd pick we shall see how quickly he develops. with tulloch now in the fold jones doesnt really fit the system in place here so its hard to say, we missed by not taking him. if we did have him we d have to add another coverage linebacker for 3rd down bc they dont use durant much in pass situations on 3rd down either. at this point im happy they took hogue bc Levy is the LB I d like to see replaced and I dont think Jones fits what we would want on the outside

IMO Jones saw the field more on a team with a better LB corps.



This I do agree with, but I still think Jones is the more talented player. Time will tell, I guess.

Well, wjb, I guess we're going to have to agree to disagree again. How you can view the Giants as having a "better" linebacking corps than the Lions is beyond me. Michael Boley was their only good linebacker, Kiwanuka, if you consider him a linebacker, is OK, but he actually played more DE than LB last season. None of the others were that impressive, which is exactly why the Giants are seen as having a pretty big need at LB.

Jones played 204 snaps, so he got his shot. Blackburn won over the spot because QB's had a 39 rating vs him. Against Jones, they had 149.3 QB rating. But M2k is right, the NYG LBs were a weak spot which is saying something considering their secondary.