If the NY Giants are going to go with a tackle outside of the ‘core four’, Houston’s Josh Jones would be their best option should he be available.
By this point, we all know the ‘core four’ of offensive tackles in the 2020 NFL draft, and many believe the NY Giants will come away with one of them one way or another.
However, Houston’s Josh Jones is a very intriguing prospect that has a wide range of where he could potentially be picked. For instance, Pro Football Focus mocked him all the way up to #10 in one of their latest mock drafts, ahead of Alabama’s Jedrick Wills.
While that’s a big stretch, it isn’t without merit. Jones was originally a three-star Oklahoma State recruit before flipping late in the process after Tom Herman gave him an offer he couldn’t refuse to join one of the fastest rising programs in the nation at the time.
After Herman turned Houston into a perennial powerhouse, he took the chance to jump to a much higher level of competition at Texas which I don’t think anyone can blame him for. However, this left Jones in a precarious situation as he came to Houston specifically to be under the star coach’s tutelage.
Despite a mass exodus of transfers, Jones stayed the course at Houston and in the American Athletic Conference and it has paid massive dividends. He became the starting left tackle as a redshirt Freshman (Herman’s last year) and never gave the job up again, improving every single year and catapulting himself into first-round discussion heading into his senior year.
Last year was not a banner year for Houston as the Herman transfer effect really started to sink in. Dana Holgorson struggled to get the team off the ground in his first season to the tune of a 4-8 record (and just 2-6 in AAC play). Holgorson was criticized for benching some of his better players on the roster to get his own guys in for experience down the line in the college version of tanking, but Jones was far too talented to consider doing this to.
The Texas native started off the year with a bang against Oklahoma where his team performed better than most thought which had a lot to do with him stonewalling part of the Sooners’ excellent pass-rushing group.
On the year, Jones allowed a mind-numbingly low 4 pressures on 325 pass-blocking snaps over nine games before a knee injury caused him to miss the last three games. Many draft analysts have pointed to Jones having technique issues that need to be cleaned up in pass sets, but excuse me for not taking that very seriously with these type of results.
Where Jones really shines is in the run game as he flourishes as a second-level run blocker due to his athleticism. Pro Football Focus named his a first-team All American due to him grading out to over a 90 in both pass and run blocking, with his overall 94.5 grade coming in the top-five overall in the history of their college grading.
Saquon Barkley would have to love running to his left side behind a guy like Jones after having to deal with Nate Solder over the past few seasons, and adding him would only fuel the fire that he’s due for a monster season under new offensive coordinator Jason Garrett.
How and where could the NY Giants land him?
Now here’s the tricky part, with Josh Jones not appearing to fall in line with where the NY Giants currently pick; #4 being too high and #36 likely being too low to and him.
However, as we all know, once draft night start crazy things happen. Does Las Vegas (man that is so weird to write) try to move up to #4 and give up #12 and #19? That’s a very entertaining scenario and with the Raiders needing a quarterback, it’s on the table.
Does Miami try to further jumpstart their rebuild by packaging #18 and #26 to go with back-to-back elite prospects at #4 and #5? I’m listening.
The most likely route is either hoping he falls to #36, which is unlikely due to the fact that some team is going to probably take a stab at the clear #5 OT after the run ends outside of the top 15.
One route that really could work is similar to what happened with Deandre Baker last year, where Dave Gettleman has a high grade on him and sees him slipping towards the end of the first round only to trade back in.
This would probably require a third-rounder next year (or this) or maybe a package of a four and a later pick. The ideal scenario would be getting a team to take picks in next year’s draft, but this scenario needs to be on the table should he fall into the late 20’s/early 30’s on draft night.