Rams Reporter: Why Ernest Jones is a GREAT fit for the Tennessee Titans defense

KW Ramone Kayla and will Ramone Foster Kayla Anderson and myself will bowling joined from the West Coast in the beautiful city of Los Angeles this morning talking about Ernest Jones the Titans new inside linebacker and she is Jordan rodri covering the LA Rams for the athletic Jordan appreciate you waking up early with us over there on the west coast this morning how are you I'm good guys good morning how are you good we great and we wanted to go straight to the source on Ernest Jones and the scouting report on him and on and off the field been following a lot of your work about exactly who this guy is and what the Titans are getting Jordan let's start on the field um what will Titans fans like about Ernest Jones the linebacker well first and foremost I think he's a really good hit in dard Wilson's scheme um I've been following along with gard and and other coaches from that Mike McDonald family and um trying to figure out kind of what it is like everyone what it is they're about to do and uh you know hearing that he wants to Blitz a lot Ernest Jones is is one of the best blitzing inside linebackers in the NFL right now and I think that that's going to be a situational asset now he won't do it every play obviously but when those situations do come up I do think that Ernest Jones is is the type of player that um you call upon in that situation um four and a half sacks last year just they had to Blitz a little bit more they were trying to get pressure with uh with only one outside linebacker who was was able to make plays for him and obviously you have Aon Donald but he's getting doubled and tripled every play so you need the pressure to come from somewhere else and Ernest Jones was the guy that provided that pressure um you know really solid tackler really solid against the run and he's just he's just been steady for the Rams for for three seasons he's just kind of been steady right right in the middle of the field he's called their defense for them so certainly someone who I'm curious to see how dard Wilson uses him particular ularly in pressure situation Jordan rodri covering the LA Rams for the athletic is our guest so Jordan off the field I know there's that quote from Aaron Donald telling Ernest Jones hey this is your defense now uh when he retired um what kind of leader and voice in the locker room uh are the Titans getting in Ernest Jones yeah well you guys are going to love covering this guy I mean it's funny when he stepped onto the scene in Los Angeles as a as a rookie out of South Carol Ina middle round draft pick he seemed like and I mean this in the best way already like a 40-year-old like parent of five like been in the school pickup line for years like he's been around like he just he's he's always been very mature he's extremely vocal um he's very very friendly he was our he was our good guy last year our media pro football writers association voted Upon Our good guy they put his locker right next to Aaron Donald so he could learn leaders the leadership traits from Aaron the qualities that that make Aaron Donald um you know who he is off the field not just on the field and he also was under Bobby Wagner's Wing when that one year when Bobby Wagner was a Los Angeles RAM and and really learned habits and how to study um from Bobby and so he he is one of those players who I say this without hesitation he was one of my favorite players ever to cover I know well missed him as a person in Los Angeles um he's got a really beautiful young family just got married just had baby boy has a ton of dogs running around and and likes to rescue animals and and all of that so I think that Tennessee fans are really going to love this guy man Jordan R re joining us this morning Senor writer with the athletic Jordan thank you for answering my DM yesterday I was like okay we got to figure out what's going on okay I appreciate you yeah uh with that being said though you you say all these great things about him and I I know for sure that lines up but I guess this fan base would hear you say that and say well why is he out of Los Angeles is there any insight you can give us as to why this trade happened for him and the Titans exactly and and it's a great qu it's a it's a really fair question and there are three things at work here that are true all at the same time one is the Rams are not going to pay him they weren't going to sign him to a contract extension they the only linebacker they have ever paid um is Bobby Wagner and he was only here for one year and it didn't quite work out the way that they hoped it would so they they just their their team building model they do not pay inside linebackers they do not hold fiscal value for the position although it does serve a super important role for them on the field um they told him that they were not going to pay him in the spring that they were going to let him roll out his his final deal on his rookie contract so that sort of sent a signal to other teams first of all and and they were public about that as well so that sort of sent a a signal to other teams like hey maybe this guy we can you know wait if they will they cut him what what what are they going to do if they're not going to pay him I mean he's their Captain but if they're not going to pay him Les sneeve has a saying if it is inevitable make it immediate and these other teams know that so I think a lot of a lot some of it was waiting to see if if the price would drop a little bit and then the other part of it is he had a knee issue in the spring and he he missed some time and then it it took him a little bit of time to come back he he couldn't really um you know actually work out or or do football activities when he was recovering from that knee issue and so when it was time to get back on the field it was it was training camp they had a new defense in being installed under Chris Shula their first year defensive coordinator and he had to catch up and I think he is still a little bit catching up and onboarding back into full football activity although he he obviously is going to be able to to come in and and do that work on the field but it's just going to there's a difference between getting on the field and then being you know fully ready for a game if it started tomorrow right and in in terms of that extra shape that you want to be in um and then also the the third thing is these younger players on the team who are going to be on these longer cheaper deals that again the Rams don't financially value the the position they started playing their butts off they really saw a window and they started competing really really hard and the Rams were just glowing about this undrafted rookie from LSU Omar space who will not start right away but they think he's going to start for them in the backstretch of the season so all of those all of those things at once like I said Les need has a saying if it is inevitable make it immediate and that's what happened here wow that's super fascinating retweeted you yesterday Jordan and you spoke about this in March as it pertains to uh Ernest Ernest Jones so with that also being said I I speculated earlier okay this is just me saying okay of the guy that already knows he's not going to be paid um how serious is the knee injury did he decide to hold in and not practice because again I think it's $50,000 a day or something like that for holding out and not practicing and he hasn't had the big contract like a Trent Williams with the 49ers or cidd lamb who knew the money was coming his way as a former first-rounder do you look at that okay was it a serious knat injury or was it just his way of saying well I'm a little dinged up and I'm just going to hold out until you guys figure out what's next for me yeah you always wonder that when this situation comes up I will say um I asked Sean MCB this Direct directly um in the spring of whether Ernest Jones absence from the field at that time was due to the contract or whether it was due to the knee issue we knew he ended the season with um and and Sean said and I'm paraphrasing a bit here but because I don't have Shawn M's memory but Sean said um you know that it was not due to the contract situation that he was working through the knee issue that he was trying to come back strong from that and that Ernest has been a total Pro with how he's handled the contract situation and and Sean has reiterated that all the way to the end here um saying that Ernest Jones was a total Pro with how he handled the contract situation specifically because I I think it's kind of rare that a team is so open and public about just saying well we're not going to pay you like to like we we were told this on the record at League meetings you know so I think when you see that and I think the Instinct could be all right I need to protect myself but for by accounts from Sean directly and on the record um this was not the case that he really was trying to work back from that knee injury Jordan rodrig a senior writer for the athletic covering the Rams in Los Angeles joins us this morning on Arcade dub Jordan so when you talk about the ceiling for this guy because he's 24 years old soon to be 25 not even finished with his rookie deal yet uh what do you feel like he could get to because I think some people here too are like well pump the brakes he's not Fred Warner yeah I think you know what we what we've seen from Ernest is consistent over the years we we haven't seen like you know hey you're going to be you know the first or second best linebacker in the NFL we've seen flashes of Brilliance like I said when you send him on a pressure you see flashes of of absolute Brilliance from this guy and the way that he can see the field and read the field he's very very good at it I think that with his feeling what I'm first and foremost what I'd like to see from Ernest is that he gets you know kind of that fire I think that when something like this happen happens to a player um and kind of catches them unexpected like I said they they just had a baby back here in Los Angeles and and you're kind of focusing on that and trying to you know sleep and all those things that that you're not I mean that you're not doing I I would I would go so far as they probably wasn't sleeping very much um taking care trying to help his wife and and take care of of that young man and it it you you just want to see him kind of be himself again because that KNE and then coming back and and pushing to work his way back in first you want to see him be himself again because who he is can really help a team and then after that you see him be a captain that that's the probably the highest compliment I can I can give Ernest is that he's just a captain he is r and through uh a captain of the of a defense and I think that's going to be a pretty good ceiling for him in Tennessee and Jordan and speaking of that Captain kind of role in the future and a guy that's a leader uh we've heard so many things from you and some other people have you know covered the team that that's exactly what he is wearing the green dot because now they have another inside linebacker here from the Los Angeles Chargers they brought in in Kenneth Murray and he's kind of hitting the reset button in his career they want him to play a little more free is this the guy who could wear the Green Dot and you'd feel comfortable with the communication aspect the communication 100% I would say I would like to see him stay on the field the entire time obviously that's that Green Dot player has to be able to do that so like I said I'm not I'm not trying to Crown anybody um as like okay you show up day one on campus and you are the dude right away right um I think the terms of the trade kind of outline that for you right of of kind of what the expectation of a ramp up period will be but once Ernest does get his feet under him and and get on the field and get playing um he is somebody who you can trust with a Green Dot he is somebody who can communicate he has a way about his communication style where he's very clear to the point he never demeans teammates he never shouts he never raises his voice he always tries to bring people with him and he got that from Aaron Donald and he got that from Bobby Wagner that's awesome wow Jordan rodrig covers the LA Rams for the athletic uh and just crushes it really good stuff and great insight into the Titans newest leader in this defense Jordan we really appreciate the time thanks so much thanks Al appreciate talking to you this morning absolutely thank you absolutely there's Jordan rodrig who uh does an excellent job yeah covering National Football League I like the element of Ernest Jones essentially being mentored by two of the best defensive players of this generation between Aaron Donald and Bobby Wagner