The 2024 NFL Draft is getting close, making it an excellent time to highlight some of the class' best players with scouting reports. Each report will include strengths, weaknesses and background information.
Here's our report on Jarrian Jones.
In 2023, Jones primarily played as the nickel CB for Florida State. He also showed good versatility to play outside and in the slot with a good mix of size and speed. Jones was not an every-down player in 2023 but instead played more as a rotational and scheme-based player (77 percent of his coverage snaps came in the slot as nickel, sub-package CB).
He has a good combination of size and speed, allowing him to match up against bigger WRs/TEs and in the slot vs. quicker WRs. He even bumped inside as a stacked LB, depending on formation.
He plays with a good tempo and pace in his backpedal to allow him to position himself properly to react to receiver routes. Lacks the lateral explosiveness to consistently stay with quicker receivers across the field.
Overall, Jones is an intriguing prospect with a good combination of size and speed to provide position and scheme versatility. While he doesn’t possess elite lateral quickness, his size and vertical speed correlate to him being an early Day 3 pick. Jones has the size and skill set to contribute on special teams and possibly in sub-packages initially, with the potential to develop into a solid NFL starter.
Jones is from Flowood, MS, and was a four-star recruit who was the nation's 22nd-ranked safety out of high school. He was an Under Amour All-American, initially attending Mississippi State before transferring to Florida State in 2020.
Jones finished his career playing in 52 games, totaling 96 tackles, 5.5 TFL, one sack, five interceptions, 12 PBUs and two forced fumbles.
In 2022, Jones had only 196 coverage snaps and was targeted on 18 pass attempts, allowing only seven completions (38.9 percent) for 99 yards, zero touchdowns and one interception. He played from press alignment on 75 of his 196 coverage snaps (32.3 percent). Jones played one more snap of zone coverage than man (50 percent zone and 50 percent man).
In 2023, Jones had only 240 coverage snaps. He was targeted on 21 pass attempts, allowing only six completions (28.6 percent) for 184 yards and zero touchdowns, three interceptions and three PBUs. He played from press alignment on 40 of his 240 coverage snaps (16.7 percent). Jones played slightly more zone coverage than man (53 percent zone and 47 percent man).
Last Season, Jones played 185 of his 240 coverage snaps from the Slot (77 percent), allowing only five completions on 18 targets (27.8 percent, sixth-best in the nation among DBs with at least 10 slot targets) for only 70 yards with zero touchdowns, three interceptions and three PBUs.
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