The Denver Broncos selected Ohio State defensive lineman Dre’Mont Jones in the third round of the 2019 NFL Draft. Jones played three seasons with the Buckeyes and left following his redshirt-junior season, when he was named first-team All-Big Ten.
Here are five things you might not know about Dre’Mont Jones:
He was sidelined by a freak injury
Entering the 2019 draft wasn’t always Jones’ plan. At one point, he was rumored as a potential first-round pick in 2018. Part of the reason he didn’t declare for the draft following his redshirt-sophomore year was a fluky injury.
Jones was roughhousing with a teammate in the Ohio State locker room after a practice in 2017. He ran into the edge of one of the lockers, where a nail was sticking out and tore open his leg.
The cut was so deep that he could see bone. He needed 50 stitches to repair it and Jones sat out the Buckeyes’ next two games while he recovered.
“I am not going to say I accomplished everything because if I did, I wouldn’t have come back,” Jones told The Athletic after the season.“It’s kind of hard to say, but 2017 was a crazy season for me because of the injury and the passing of my grandmother, so it’s been a lot.”
He wasn’t always a football player
Taking a nail to the leg wasn’t Jones’ first injury. He missed his entire freshman season at Ohio State because he blew out his knee during a high school basketball game.
Basketball was Jones’ sport of choice. His dad was a boxer, but Jones wanted to play power forward instead of following in his father’s footsteps. Eventually, Jones, who weighed in at the combine at 6-foot-3 and 281 pounds, realized his best bet for a career in sports was on the gridiron.
Jones joined the football team at Saint Ignatius High School in Cleveland for his junior season. Despite only two years of experience, he earned an invitation to play in the Army All-American Bowl, after his senior year. He was the first player in school history to earn the honor.
He impressed Ohio State coaches immediately
Jones redshirted his first year with Ohio State because of the knee injury, but by the time bowl season rolled around, Jones was good to go and he caught the coaches’ eyes. He burned all of the team’s offensive lineman and became a favorite to breakout the next season.
“I remember that like it was yesterday,” Jones told Cleveland.com. “That was my first few weeks of playing college ball at all. I was so eager to get back, I guess I could make the excuse that everyone had dead legs and I had fresh legs and that’s probably why I did good at the time.”
As a redshirt freshman, Jones played in every game and made 51 tackles, the most in his career. Four of those tackles were for a loss.
He has a pair of older brothers
Jones credits his two brothers, Dionte and Darrin for toughening him up and helping set him on an NFL trajectory. Dre’Mont was the youngest of the three, but he grew quickly and wasn’t bullied easily.
“Big and aggressive,” Dionte told ClevelandBrowns.com. “We watched him a lot when he was young. Our parents worked nights, so we would watch him at night but he would be awake and aggressive at all times.”
The competition started with games of Madden. There was no mercy rule. Jones’ brothers, Darrin and Dionte, would beat him down until they were bored.
“I used to beat him 100-0,” Darrin said. “Then the very next year he started beating me. Now, I don’t play him anymore.”
A detective visited his high school football coach before the draft
Jones’ high school football coach, Chuck Kyle, is often asked about his former players by NFL scouts. Usually, he fills out a simple questionnaire about them. But for Jones, one team needed more information.
“He couldn’t tell you anything about a flanker,” Kyle told The Athletic. “I’ve talked with scouts before, but never anyone like this.”
The Los Angeles Rams hired a former detective to assist them in their scouting. The detective visits people who have come into contact with prospects and grills them. For example, he pressed Kyle about whether Jones got along with people and how he treated his teachers.
