LB Ernest Jones Completes the Titans' Defense: Film Breakdown

[Music] the Titans traded for Rams linebacker Ernest Jones and my first reaction was great player but Rand carthon has got to stop just trading a third round pick for every player that he likes but then it comes out that they got him in a pick swap where they're sending the Rams a fifth round pick and getting a sixth rounder in return and that's great value for one of the best young linebackers in the NFL in my positional rankings I have him as tied for the 14th best line backer and I think this significantly improves the biggest weakness on the Titans defense for me it moves them from 21st to 15th in overall defense and 31st to 17th at linebacker and ideally you wouldn't extend a player that hasn't played for you but like if he plays Four good games I would give him a contract extension looking at his stats from 2023 this graphic has percentiles compared to every linebacker with at least 400 snaps since 2006 each point is an individual linebacker season and he was above 50th percentile in everything except PFF coverage grade he also had six sacks last year and led off ball linebackers with 37 pressures I view him as a top tier pass rushing linebacker a really good run Defender and probably closer to average in coverage and he's a solid athlete 612 230 lb below average historically in terms of weight but compared to today's NFL it's not that big of an outlier he does have really long arms almost 34 in that helps him shed blocks and makes up ex up for some of his lack of size 472 in the 40 is playable but he's extremely explosive 38 1/2 in vertical 12 126 in the broad jump so starting with his run defense he's a very smart player in terms of play diagnosis and GAP Integrity he has plenty of range moving sideline to sideline chasing down outside runs huge upgrade to Jack Gibbons in that area he's a reliable tackler under a 10% Miss tackle rate every season of his career he's not an elite stack and shed linebacker but but he uses his hands effectively when he needs to and he does a good job keying the play quickly enough to stay ahead of blocks and keep himself out of compromising situations really nice play here from week 13 the Browns are backed up in their own inzone running Duo so they got a double team on Aaron Donald the nose tackle has access to this front side a gap Ernest Jones can kind of gamble here loop around this double team and make the stop he does a really good job keying Gap scheme runs quickly beating pullers to the spot and I think he has a good balance of patience and aggression and knowing when he needs to get downhill fast and attack gaps when he needs to play more conservative and be able to fall back this play the Ravens are running inside zone so he's mirroring the ball carrier the backside a gap is open he could shoot this Gap and potentially get a tfl but he falls back mirrors the cut back uses his length to extend himself from the climbing blocker the surf player ends up making first Contact but he was right in position to make the tackle another good example here against the Seahawks of being able to flow with the Run stay square with the line of scrimmage he has eyes on the running back but in his peripheral vision he can see the right tackle climbing to the second level and he's able to continue to mirror the ball while shedding the block and keeping himself clean and despite being undersized you can see his play strength and stopping power on this goal line standing against Washington first play he takes on the lead blocker holds his ground the running back doesn't have anywhere to go and then a couple plays later he squares up with the running back in the hole drives him a few yards backwards so I don't have a whole lot of criticisms of Ernest Jones as a run Defender I think one of the better early down linebackers in the league in coverage like I said I would describe him as average I think he improved last year comparing him to Aziz Al Shyer for example in terms of man coverage ability and range to defend screens I think they're very similar his Zone coverage awareness I think is clearly an upgrade but still a bit up and down probably his best play in coverage last year was this pass break up against the Ravens Lamar Jackson kind of stares down this glance route Earnest Jones reads his eyes gets into the passing Lane it bounces off his fingertips but potentially an interception he could have come down with and then similar play here against the Cardinals in the red zone to slide in front of this quick slant to Trey McBride and get the pass break up really good job defending this option route here against the Saints being disruptive at the catch point you also see his length show up in pass coverage uh this rep against the Bengals he's able to reach just far enough to force the incompletion and then a good job here on this play action bootleg against the Giants of recognizing the slide route from Darius Slayton not overp pursuing and getting out leveraged he isn't shut down in zone coverage still needs to improve his play recognition this play is in the hook he widens out with this out route from Christian mcaffrey when there was already another Defender that had curl flat responsibility and then Brandon auk runs uncovered behind him on a dig route right here the Giants have two routes that are initially stemming inside once he reads those stems he moves his eyes to the quarterback but then Darren Waller runs a whip route and then also not a great sense for like shallow crosses that are developing behind him he gave up a big completion to kylin granson here where he just didn't see the route overall though I think he's a slight up upgrade to a Z's and definitely not someone you're going to complain about in coverage he also hasn't even turned 25 so a lot of the mental stuff could definitely improve and then final thing to discuss is pass rushing like I said he led off ball linebackers with 37 pressures last year now a lot of times with linebacker pass rushing production it's kind of empty calories if a linebacker gets a bunch of sacks or pressures on like stunts or just unblocked stuff that doesn't really move me a whole lot but Ernest Jones actually has a pass rushing skill set and a lot of of his production last year came from defeating Blocks he's an absolute headache for running backs and Blitz pickup this play against the Saints he's powerful at the point of contact rips around the outside shoulder gets the sack right here David Montgomery kind of lunges into him he Club swims around the outside and sacks jar GF this play he uses more of a two-handed swipe to get around the blitz pickup and then another one from the Saints game hesitation into the double swipe gets around Alvin Kamar he hits Derek Carr and ends up forcing an interception so that double swipe is one of his go-to moves he got a lot of pressures using that to get around the running back he can also just hit you with a bull rush this play he flattens Christian mcaffrey but Brock py gets rid of the ball so I think the biggest remaining weakness on the Titans defense is Edge rusher I expect this to be a very Blitz heavy scheme to try to make up for that and Ernest Jones is the perfect linebacker to add to dinard Wilson's defense from the Rams perspective it's very confusing I mean I know they don't value off ball linebacker that much I understand Ernest Jones is in the final year of his contract so that kind of suppresses his trade value a bit but I just don't know how you go into a season with Christian roseboom as your starting linebacker and expect to compete at least defensively they've always done a good job of kind of bargain hunting for linebackers maybe Omar Spates the udfa ends up being that but Ernest Jones is a player that I definitely would have extended [Music] [Music]