FOXBORO — Jonathan Jones is like most veteran NFL cornerbacks.
Athletic, quick, aggressive and assured. In a number of video games final season, Jones fortunately accepted the project of overlaying an opposing No. 1 receiver.
So what did he make of the Patriots taking a nook with their first decide within the draft, successfully acknowledging they wanted assist on the place? Jones, it seems, was completely satisfied.
“We needed it,” he instructed reporters Tuesday/ “We need help. We need all the help that we can get. We’ve had a lot of transition at that position over the last few years.”
The 29-year-old is now the elder statesman of the Pats’ secondary, because the longest-tenured defensive again on the roster. He flipped to exterior nook final season after spending the primary six years of his profession as a nickelback. Jones has additionally moonlighted at security.
Largely, he succeeded because the Patriots’ new No. 1 nook final 12 months, although his matchups with elite wideouts down the stretch, together with two with Buffalo’s Stefon Diggs and one other with Vikings star Justin Jefferson, had been decisive losses.
Enter Christian Gonzalez.
The 6-foot-2, 199-pounder rookie is an athletic marvel, who thrived performed man and zone in faculty. Gonzalez, 20, was thought-about a top-10 decide coming into the draft, however fell to seventeenth general the place the Patriots scooped him up. He not too long ago began collaborating within the crew’s rookie minicamp together with the opposite first-year gamers on the roster.
Jones gave Gonzalez, and late-round rookie corners Ameer Speed and Isaiah Bolden, excessive marks for the primary impressions they’ve made contained in the crew facility.
“In the meetings, they’re trying to answer questions. They’re participating, and that’s a start,” Jones stated. “All the guys have been in there. We’ve met them all. They’ve all just bought in — answering questions, asking questions and just trying to learn.”
As for what place Jones will play, contemplating his versatility, Devin McCourty’s departure at free security and the potential for Gonzalez and second-year nook Jack Jones to begin exterior, he stayed mum on the subject.
“My answer to that is I get to play football,” he stated with amusing. “Any time I get to go out there in between those lines, I love it. So I’m not really particularly worried about where I play, where I end up. I just like to be out there with my teammates.”
Source: www.bostonherald.com