Ohio State’s Mountain of a Man Dawand Jones A First-Rounder?

Nobody dreams of their team drafting a right tackle, but if they did, visions of Dawand Jones just might be dancing through their minds until the alarm clock goes off.

Left tackles get all the love in the first-round, because most quarterbacks are right-handed and they protect their blindside.

However, right tackles are important to. Just ask fans of any NFL team that doesn’t have a good one.

Jones has excellent hand and foot technique

Hand and footwork make or break the careers of offensive tackles in the NFL.

Those who are good at it often hunker down for a decade while collecting a check.

Those who are not so good at it often bounce around and eventually find themselves playing for some other league.

The first things that stuck out to me while watching him is how well he uses his hands to block in pass protection.

The next thing that stood out to me was I did not see him cross over his feet one time while sliding out on the perimeter.

Jones has good (not great) lateral foot speed while shielding the pocket, and he did an outstanding job maintaining a nice wide base (and balance) the entire time.

Surprisingly athletic and gives a good effort

Jones can really move around for his size and showed he can even make it out to the second-level (where the linebackers line up) and even do a decent job out there in space.

What he lacks in top-shelf lateral foot speed, he often compensates with effort.

Jones tries hard on every snap, which means a lot to me when I grade.

While it’s not always the prettiest with Jones, and he ended up doing just enough many times, the point is he often did enough (or just barely enough).

Is Jones a first-round prospect?

That’s the big question and I will not be drawing a definitive conclusion on that until I’ve had the chance to study his 2022 game film.

For now, the 2021 Michigan game knocked him out of the first-round.

He gave up a couple quick inside pass rushing sacks against 2021 first-round pick Aidan Hutchinson (No. 2 overall).

I don’t mean to be overly critical, but Jones will be facing the “Hutchinson’s of the world,” week in and week out at the next level.

That “good,” but not “great” lateral foot speed was exposed.

In this three-game study, Jones was challenged a dozen times by speed at the backdoor of the pocket and got turned. Granted like I said, his effort was able to compensate in these situations, but the game only gets faster in the NFL.

#79 Dawand Jones 6-foot-8, 359 pounds

Daniel Kelly’s Grade: Second-Round – Fall 2022 Report

First Round Mock Big Board: TBD

Projected by 12.5% of the NFL Draft Community to be a first-round pick as of November 13, 2022 (nflmockdraftdatabase.com)

2021 game film reviewed: Penn State, Oregon and Michigan (click to watch games viewed to form this evaluation)

Level of competition: High

Note: Earned a 90.6 run-blocking grade in 2021. His size and strength helped him tie for fifth in big-time run blocks among Power Five tackles, too. Jones’ pass-protection wasn’t quite as good, but it was still solid, as he held his competition to less than one pressure per game on average (Pro Football Focus)

2023 NFL Draft Scouting Report

Huge tackle with long arms, great technique, effort and decent lateral foot speed. Sets up in pass protection and does a good job maintaining his balance and a nice wide base. Tough to go through or to beat through the back door. Good, but not great anchor (gave up some ground). Susceptible to top shelf quickness and speed. Get after it and stays after it run blocking. Decent physical positional blocker with inconsistent sustain. Often able to do just enough and ends up on the ground a lot. Flashes aggressiveness. Has enough power to get movement straight-ahead in short yardage situations. Three false starts in three games. Solid football player a team can win with.

What to watch for during the 2022 college football season:

1. How does he look in pass protection against speed and quickness?
2. How does he look vs. bull rush attempts?
3. Does he stay healthy?
4. Sustaining run blocks long enough?

It’s easy to get caught up in how tall he is, but his towering height alone doesn’t add much to his particular position.

Daniel Kelly is a former NFL Scout with the New York Jets. He was hired on the regime which featured Bill Parcells, Bill Belichick, Scott Pioli, Mike Tannenbaum, and Dick Haley. He currently writes for Sports Illustrated New York Jets and he is the Editor-in-Chief for First Round Mock. For more information about him visit his website at whateverittakesbook.com. He can be followed on Twitter @firstroundmock.