ASU Football: Sun Devil Prospect Snapshot, Jack Jones to Patriots

With the No. 121 pick in the 2022 NFL Draft, the New England Patriots selected former Arizona State cornerback Jack Jones. Jones is the second Sun Devil off the board in this year’s draft class.

Jones has always been one of the highest-rated prospects on his team. Coming out of Long Beach Polytechnic High School, where Antonio Pierce coached before ASU and five other Devils have attended, Jones was 247 Sports’s No. 44 prospect nationally while listed as an Athlete. His short list included Alabama, Oklahoma, Texas A&M, UCLA and USC — where he ultimately landed in in 2016.

At USC, Jones developed into a starting corner by his sophomore year. In 2017, he led the Trojans with four interceptions and started all fourteen games for the Pac-12 champions.

That offseason, everything unfolded. Jones was ruled academically ineligible, and was dismissed from the program. Days later, he was arrested and pleaded guilty to misdemeanor commercial burglary.

Jones spent a season playing juco ball at Moorpark Community College in SoCal, where he developed into the No. 16 juco prospect nationally. Herm Edwards pulled some strings, Pierce worked the Long Beach Poly-ASU network, and Jones landed in Tempe.

At ASU, Jones became a three-year starter that tallied five picks, three forced fumbles and 25 pass breakups.

His size (5-foot-11, 175 pounds), 50-50 ball-skills and character concerns are his main knocks, but his stickiness on receivers and twitchiness are widely praised. The turnover skills are present, and his strip-sack and pick-six in the same game against Arizona should excite Patriots fans.

The NFL Mock Draft Database, which compiles mocks from dozens NFL expert big boards, ranked Jack Jones as the No. 30 cornerback in this year’s class. Jones was the no. 16 corner taken in the draft.

Chase Lucas, who is currently still on the board, sits at No. 27 in the database.