Zay Jones

Zay Jones
No. 11 – Buffalo Bills
Position: Wide receiver
Personal information
Born: (1995-03-30) March 30, 1995
Dallas, Texas
Height: 6 ft 2 in (1.88 m)
Weight: 201 lb (91 kg)
Career information
High school: Stephen F. Austin
(Austin, Texas)
College: East Carolina
NFL Draft: 2017 / Round: 2 / Pick: 37
Career history
Roster status: Active
Career highlights and awards
  • First Team All-American (2016)
  • First Team All-AAC (2016)
Career NFL statistics as of Week 6, 2018
Receptions: 43
Receiving yards: 515
Yards per reception: 11.9
Receiving touchdowns: 3
Player stats at NFL.com

Isaiah Avery "Zay" Jones (born March 30, 1995) is an American football wide receiver for the Buffalo Bills of the National Football League (NFL). He played college football at East Carolina. Jones is the all-time NCAA Division I career receptions leader with 399 as well as the all-time NCAA Division I single-season receptions leader with 158.

Early years

Jones was born on March 30, 1995 in Dallas,Texas, the son of Robert Jones, a former football player who spent ten years in the NFL, and Maneesha Jones.[1] He has two brothers, Cayleb and Levi and his uncle is Jeff Blake.[2][3][4] Jones attended Stephen F. Austin High School in Austin, Texas. He committed to East Carolina University to play college football.[5]

College career

Jones played in 13 games and made eight starts as a true freshman at East Carolina in 2013. He finished second on the team with 62 receptions for 604 yards and five touchdowns.[6] As a sophomore, he had 81 receptions for 830 yards and five touchdowns. As a junior, he recorded 98 receptions for 1,099 yards and five touchdowns.[7] During his senior season in 2016, he set a school record for receptions in a game with 22, breaking the previous record of 17 held by Justin Hardy[8] and then went on to break the school record for receptions in a season, also held by Hardy, nine games into the season. Subsequently, Jones became the NCAA Division I football all-time single season leader in receptions with 158 for the 2016 season, breaking the previous record of 155 set by wide receiver Freddie Barnes of Bowling Green in 2009.[9][10] Additionally, Jones became the NCAA Division I football career leader in receptions with 399, breaking the all-time NCAA record of 387 held by his former ECU Pirate teammate and future NFL receiver Justin Hardy.[11][12] Jones was also named as one of three finalists for the 2016 Biletnikoff Award, which is given annually to the nation's best receiver in college football.[13]

College statistics

Receiving
YearTeamGPRecYardsTDs
2013ECU12626045
2014ECU13818305
2015ECU12981,0995
2016ECU121581,7468
College Totals493994,27923

Source:[14]

Professional career

Jones received an invitation to the Senior Bowl and had practiced well during the week leading up to the game. He led both teams and greatly improved his draft stock after making six receptions for 68 receiving yards and a touchdown for the North, who lost 16–15 to the South.[15] He also attended the NFL Combine and completed all the combine and positional drills. Jones also participated at East Carolina's Pro Day, but opted to only run positional drills for team representatives and scouts. The majority of NFL draft experts and analysts projected Jones to be selected in the second round. He was ranked the fourth best wide receiver in the draft by NFL media analyst Mike Mayock, the fifth best wide receiver by ESPN, and was ranked the sixth best wide receiver by Sports Illustrated and NFLDraftScout.com.[16][17][18]

Pre-draft measurables
Ht Wt Arm length Hand size 40-yard dash 10-yd split 20-yd split 20-ss 3-cone Vert jump Broad BP
6 ft 2 in
(1.88 m)		 201 lb
(91 kg)		 31 1⁄2 in
(0.80 m)		 9 in
(0.23 m)		 4.45 s 1.55 s 2.61 s 4.01 s 6.79 s 36 1⁄2 in
(0.93 m)		 11 ft 1 in
(3.38 m)		 15 reps
All values from NFL Combine[19]

Buffalo Bills

2017

The Buffalo Bills selected Jones in the second round (37th overall) of the 2017 NFL Draft.[20] On May 18, the Bills signed Jones to a four-year, $6.77 million contract with $3.84 million guaranteed and a signing bonus of $3.07 million.[21]

On September 10, 2017, Jones made his NFL debut. He had one reception for 21 yards in the 21–12 victory over the New York Jets.[22] On September 17, 2017, in Week 2, he barely missed on a potential game-winning pass from quarterback Tyrod Taylor on fourth down late in the game of a 9–3 loss to the Carolina Panthers.[23] In Week 9, against the New York Jets, he recorded six receptions for 53 yards and his first career receiving touchdown.[24] In 15 games (10 starts) of his rookie year in 2017, Jones finished with 316 receiving yards and 2 touchdowns.

2018

Following his rookie season, Jones revealed he had played much of the year with a torn labrum in the shoulder, which required offseason surgery. Jones missed much of OTA's during the 2018 offseason due to another injury stemming from an offseason incident and started training camp on the non-football injury list.[25]

On March 21, 2018, Jones was arrested in Los Angeles for suspicion of felony vandalism. Jones was involved in an altercation with a man on the 30th floor of an apartment building, with the man seemingly being identified as Jones' older brother, Cayleb. Jones allegedly smashed a window, resulting in cuts on his foot, and tried to jump out, but with Cayleb and police stopping it.[26]

References

  1. ↑ "Zay Jones' NFL debut against his brother is a dream come true". Retrieved 2018-03-21.
  2. ↑ http://www.nfl.com/player/caylebjones/2556840/profile
  3. ↑ Murschel, Matt. "ECU receiver Isaiah Jones says football-focused family fuels his success".
  4. ↑ "Keeping Up With The Joneses". Retrieved 2018-03-21.
  5. ↑ "Isaiah Jones picks ECU". August 6, 2012.
  6. ↑ "2013 East Carolina Pirates Stats". College Football at Sports-Reference.com. Retrieved 2017-11-02.
  7. ↑ "Jones in game mode - Daily Reflector".
  8. ↑ "ECU's Jones 'phenomenal' in record-setting receiving effort".
  9. ↑ "With another record, ECU's Zay Jones is NCAA's most prolific receiver".
  10. ↑ "Jones, ECU still motivated - Daily Reflector".
  11. ↑ "With another record, ECU's Zay Jones is NCAA's most prolific receiver". Yahoo.com. November 26, 2016.
  12. ↑ Uthman, Daniel (November 21, 2016). "Five-way WR: How ECU's Zay Jones became the all-time receptions leader". USAToday.com.
  13. ↑ "Zay Jones named one of three finalists for Biletnikoff Award".
  14. ↑ "Isaiah Jones College Stats - College Football at Sports-Reference.com".
  15. ↑ Chase Goodbread (January 28, 2017). "What we learned from Senior Bowl: Zay Jones boosts draft stock". NFL.com. Retrieved May 26, 2017.
  16. ↑ Chris Burke (April 25, 2017). "2017 NFL Draft Rankings: Top Prospects by Position". si.com. Retrieved May 26, 2017.
  17. ↑ Jeff Legwold (April 22, 2017). "Ranking the 2017 Draft's Top 100 Prospects". ESPN.com. Retrieved May 26, 2017.
  18. ↑ Mike Mayock (April 12, 2017). "Mike Mayock's 2017 NFL Draft position rankings 3.0". NFL.com. Retrieved May 26, 2017.
  19. ↑ "NFL Draft Profile: Zay Jones". NFL.com. Retrieved May 26, 2017.
  20. ↑ Sambrotto, Anthony (April 28, 2017). "Bills snare a catch king in WR Zay Jones". BuffaloBills.com.
  21. ↑ "Spotrac.com: Zay Jones contract". Spotrac.com. Retrieved May 24, 2017.
  22. ↑ "New York Jets at Buffalo Bills - September 10th, 2017". Pro-Football-Reference.com. Retrieved 24 September 2017.
  23. ↑ "Buffalo Bills at Carolina Panthers - September 17th, 2017". Pro-Football-Reference.com. Retrieved 14 October 2017.
  24. ↑ "Buffalo Bills at New York Jets - November 2nd, 2017". Pro-Football-Reference.com. Retrieved 2017-11-06.
  25. ↑ Roth, Leo (July 25, 2018). "Bills place receiver Zay Jones on active/non-football injury list on eve of camp". Democrat and Chronicle. Retrieved August 3, 2018.
  26. ↑ "Jay Jones arrested after naked struggle with brother in Los Angeles". Newsweek. Retrieved March 21, 2018.
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