A Look Back At Sean Jones
March 17th, 2010
Joe’s been sniffing around to learn as much as he can about the Bucs’ new safety, Sean Jones.
Cleveland Plain Dealer columnist Terry Pluto offered his take last year on why it was wise to let Sean Jones walk from the Browns. Pluto calls Jones a good locker room guy, weak against the pass and average at best, among other things.
The Browns wisely declined to tag safety Sean Jones their franchise player, meaning he’d be paid about $6.3 million. Instead, he will be a free agent at the end of the month. The more I watch Jones, the less I know about him – other than he seems average. When healthy, he’s a strong tackler against the run. But he had knee surgery early last season, missing four games and that seemed to cost him mobility. He never was an asset on pass coverage. After four seasons and 60 games with the Browns, is there any reason to think Jones will be anything more than just OK? And how much salary cap do you commit to him? In my mind, not a lot.
The biggest argument in favor of keeping Jones is the Browns have no one else to take his spot. In 2007, he was on the field for 98 percent of the snaps. He played every game his first three seasons, before 2008. He is reliable and a solid locker-room guy. But the safety combination of Jones and Brodney Pool was nearly as much of a problem in the secondary last season as young cornerbacks Eric Wright and Brandon McDonald. They certainly didn’t seem to give those kids on the corner a lot of help – and Jones has been especially vulnerable defending tight ends over the years.
Jeff McLane, of the Philadelphia Inquirer, reported last year that Jones was slow to pick up the Eagles’ playbook.
Jones has seen his playing time increase with each week. He didn’t dress for the opener but has been the “dime” in the Eagles’ six-defensive-back formation in the last several games. He has 18 tackles overall and recovered a muffed punt last week at the Redskins.
Acquired in the off-season after five seasons in Cleveland, Jones admitted that his slow start had something to do with learning all of the Eagles’ defensive playbook.
“The Eagles have a great scheme, and there’s a lot of detail in it,” he said. “You got to study it, you got to work it.”
The 27-year-old Jones mostly played strong safety with the Browns. He had 14 interceptions in his last three seasons there. The Eagles, like Cleveland, consider their safety spots interchangeable.
“There are a couple of small differences in there,” Jones said. “The strong safety is down in the box more, the free is obviously back in the middle more. . . . But both blitz and both cover.”
And late last season, Jones took a lot of grief for shoddy effort on this 61-yard touchdown by the Giants. If you have the stomach to click the link and watch the video, Jones is the safety who looks like a middle school tackler.
Joe’s just sharing what he found. Jones is the same upgrade from Sabby The Goat as he was yesterday.
March 17th, 2010 at 9:30 am
Joe, are you saying we signed an older Sabby the goat?
March 17th, 2010 at 9:34 am
Joe here,
Jonny – Joe doesn’t hold back. Just sharing what I found. And it’s not coming up all shiny and beautiful. Joe also got an off-the-record comment from an Eagles beat writer about Jone’s play that was a bit troubling.
Haven’t seen enough of Jones to go along with what your saying.
March 17th, 2010 at 9:35 am
I think he is a little better than Sabby… so it’s an upgrade… and arguably the THE BEST OFF-SEASON MOVE of the YEAR for the Buccaneers.
LOL.
March 17th, 2010 at 9:41 am
Looks like we may be replacing totally sucks with only mildly sucks.
An upgrade no doubt, but I don’t think the saints are too worried yet.
March 17th, 2010 at 9:43 am
fyi…. that was sarcasm… true it being the best move for Tampa… but it isn’t really all that spectacular… after a few days to digest, it turns out that maybe Sean Jones was a relatively big name, but a guy who hasn’t panned out… aka Brown… aka Michael Clayton.
The one guy who we took a chance on a few years ago, Antonio Bryant, proved he could play… in essence we hit the lotto with him… then we release him.
So why take these fliers if we are just going to release them anyway???
One other thing regarding AB… he was smart. The bucs wanted him to play hurt… he went through the motions hurting and playing… then the Bucs told him he was taking plays off… AB, the entire time, spoke good about it all to the meadia… he even said better things than Clayton “Money in the Bank”… he even said good things when the season was over… all for the sake of keeping his image as clean as possible so he could command good money in free agency.
AB must have a great agent. Because he NEVER was coming back to Tampa. Not after they made him play hurt and then killed him by saying he took plays off.
March 17th, 2010 at 9:48 am
John Lynch was never that great in pass coverage. But we had a good D-line in front of him. And he tackled and hit like a mo-fo.
If they upgrade the line and this guy can tackle and hit then he’ll be fine. Not saying he’ll be John Lynch but he’lll be an improvement over Sabby..
If they don’t get help on the line then it won’t matter if its Sabby, Jones, or Berry it will be a repeat of last year.
March 17th, 2010 at 10:03 am
Lets face it, the references cited by Joe demonstrate that we are bringing in yet another half-ass scrub.
The sad part is the false hope created in buccaneer land that they will magically respond to the Dream and play well, when Andy Reed could not make that happen.
March 17th, 2010 at 10:10 am
another flea market signing when we have the most money out of any nfl team to spend pathetic oh ya we have had the most money to spend for the past 7 years and have been the cheapest for 7 years in a row Love My Bucs-Hate The Glazers
March 17th, 2010 at 10:18 am
Great, another special teams player! At least Rich is probably happy.
Sean Jones was SOOOO good, none of the other 31 teams signed him.
March 17th, 2010 at 10:43 am
Hey just a few things to think about .. I know some of you girls will still cry and wine ..
1. Show me someone better to sign at Safety right now .. Gibril WIlson ?? He got burned routinely
2. Only 2 safeties have more picks in the last 4 years .. (14) .. Ed Reed and Atogwe
3. He has never worked with our Defense and is not a FS like he played in Philly
4. He tackles well ( See Sabby Piscitelli as other option )
5. Show me someone better to sign right now ??
Hopefully he will give us as much play as Phillips did before he became a LB
March 17th, 2010 at 10:51 am
If this guy was any good ,don’t you think the Eagles would have made at least some effort to re-sign the guy?
March 17th, 2010 at 10:52 am
if he was that good why did the eagles let him go? nick collins or the safety from the cots were better jvato if you think this is anything other then a cheap signing you need to wake up reggie brown – sean jones – jon alston give me a break ya jones may be a little bit better then sabby but he still is not very good
March 17th, 2010 at 11:24 am
@jvato24
Hey, if you want to get all excited about Sean Jones and Reggie Brown, have at it sir.
Perhaps the blocking icon also floats your boat, and you think the Dream knows what he is doing.
Some of the rest of us are a bit more grounded in reality.
March 17th, 2010 at 11:27 am
Justin … I dont think any of these are Blockbuster .. I just dont believe there is a whole lot better to be had right now .. This was the most putrid FA class in as long as I can remember ..
I view Sean Jones as insurance in case a SS we may target in round 4 is gone.
The Bucs should have signed Kevin Walter for help at WR … The Lions can keep Burleson .. There unfortunately is nobody better right now ..
The eagles have a good SS in Mikell .. They brought in Jones to play BDawks position at FS .. He is similar to Phillips with his play
March 17th, 2010 at 11:50 am
Maybe we can move Sabby to corner?
March 17th, 2010 at 11:51 am
Admittedly I don’t know much about Sean Jones, and I’m certainly not jumping to his, or the front office’s defence, but from what I’ve read, he wasn’t exactly allowed to play to his strengths in Philly.
By all accounts he’s a thumper, better against the run, and better down in the box, whereas in Philly he was used at FS to play deeper in coverage. I’m not saying he’s a long term answer, and I do hope we draft a long-term SS by round 4, but let’s at least see what he can do when he’s playing to his strengths.
March 17th, 2010 at 11:51 am
Man..you guys sound like the clowns on TBO. You can find footage of every player looking bad at times, no one is great all of the time. This guys numnbers are solid, so why bother listening to reporters talking about the guy after he left. I wonder if people in Denver said “Wow, I bet Lynch is gonna suck, casue why would TB let him go if he was still any good”…boom! Pro bowls! Jones may not be a Lynch, but give the guy a chance. These boards change with the tides and what Joe and other reporters say. Look at the numbers and make an informed decision on your own.
March 17th, 2010 at 1:40 pm
I totally agree with Chuck on this, let it play out….. I can gurantee no one on this site said AB was going to be a stud when he was signed
March 17th, 2010 at 2:17 pm
The important thing is adding competition for Sabby . Jones can do that better than Will Allen , who is a complete bum other than special teams.
Sabby has all the physical tools , and he has shown SOME improvement. Now he just needs to take it a step further , and someone pushing him to be better might do that.
March 17th, 2010 at 8:24 pm
Can he play Special Teams? Will Bissacia make him great? This is a need right now after losing Cox & Allen.