Zay Jones entered Senior Bowl week as the second-rated (behind only Cooper Kupp of Eastern Washington) receiver participating in the premier college football showcase game, and 12th-ranked receiver overall, according to CBS Sports.
In Saturday’s Senior Bowl, Jones didn’t disappoint.
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Jones finished with six catches for 68 yards and scored the North’s only touchdown, a 6-yard pitch-and-catch on fourth-down from Pitt’s Nathan Peterman – whose stock inevitably went up with Jones’ help.
And yet, it could have been better:
Zay Jones making $$$ pic.twitter.com/ndEOdzekRL
— Los Cachorros NCAAF (@CachorrosNCAAF) January 28, 2017
They keep taking away touchdowns from Zay Jones, but we got the receipts. pic.twitter.com/e81yMGQbvv
— Ryan Mathews (@Ryan_POD) January 28, 2017
That’s two catches and 47 yards of production taken off the record books. A pair of the best-looking incomplete passes of the football season.
Add those back to Jones’ day, and we would instead be talking about an eight-catch day that featured 115 receiving yards and three touchdowns. As far as I’m concerned, that those plays don’t count in the box score don’t take away the fact that Saturday belonged to Jones. The combination of size, speed, soft hands, quality route running and body control is exactly what any team would be seeking out of a prospect receiver.
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Over at NFL.com, Chase Goodbread writes Jones boosted his draft stock because of Saturday’s performance. Goodbread noted how Bears offensive coordinator Dowell Loggains seemed very impressed with Jones. During the NFL Network broadcast, Loggains stepped away for an interview with Andrew Siciliano, Mike Mayock and Daniel Jeremiah, where he showered Jones and Cooper Kupp with praise.
“Those two have had a really impressive week,” Loggains said. “They’re really football-smart guys and they’ve shown up (on game day) and showed up all week. It wasn’t a surprise to us that they’ve played the way they have.”
If you can’t get enough Jones, maybe this highlight hype video will tide you over until draft day:
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