Getty Marvin Jones celebrates a touchdown against Minnesota.
The Detroit Lions have a multi-talented player on their team in wide receive Marvin Jones. Not only is Jones one of the best wideouts in the league, he can also carry a tune quite well.
During the Lions’ virtual offseason program, Jones showed off his pipes and did an incredible job singing “Lean on Me” much to the delight of his teammates.
Here’s a look at the impromptu performance:
Jones delighted his coach Matt Patricia, who was seen smiling throughout. After the song, a teammate remarked “Boy sounds like Chris Brown and Tre Songs.” Patricia then complements Jones for the song and teases the rookies for
“Maybe some of these rookies paid attention when we get to next week and we’re pushing into to that next phase, I don’t think it’s going to sound even close to that good but maybe they can get something going,” Patricia joked.
Thankfully, no videos have surfaced of rookies singing yet, but if they do, rest assured they will likely not be as good as Jones was. The wideout has a recording studio in his home and has auditioned for American Idol, so it’s obvious he has more than a bit of experience performing.
Clearly, Jones has a potential second career when his football days are done.
Marvin Jones Called a Top NFL Wideout
Recently, Nick Shook took a closer look at NFL.com with the help of some advanced stats from Next Gen Stats in order to determine the top wide receivers in football. Detroit’s Marvin Jones placed within the top 5, claiming the No. 4 spot on Shook’s list. That placed him ahead of names like Calvin Ridley and Amari Cooper.
As it relates to why, Shook admitted in the writeup that it has everything to do with not only his skill, but his ability to grow within an offense that’s set to take off this season.
“Jones, who missed three games himself in 2019, has an interesting week-by-week stat line, with the most peculiar game coming in Week 12 against Washington, with Jeff Driskel under center. Jones was targeted 11 times and caught just five of those passes; those numbers indicate either a receiver having a bad outing or a quarterback giving a receiver few chances to make a play. Jones’ expected catch rate that date was 44.1 percent and he caught 45.5 percent of his targets, meaning he performed slightly better than expectation. He was afforded just 1.3 yards of separation on average when targeted in that game and battled through a tight window on 54.5 percent of targets. This isn’t the receiver’s fault.
Jones overcame plenty — including the second-highest tight-window percentage (29.7) of any of these pass-catchers — to post our fourth and final double-digit positive catch-rate difference of 2019 (among receivers). His yardage total doesn’t say it, but he made plenty of plays amid disadvantageous circumstances.”
Jones had multiple big games this season including a day in October where he exploded for 4 touchdowns in a game against Minnesota. Though his season was cut short by injury, Jones put up numbers and managed to dominate no matter who was the quarterback. That’s significant and leads to the thought that Jones might be heading for a career year in 2020 with a healthy quarterback.
Marvin Jones Dominant for Lions in 2019
Seeing Jones exit with injury late in the 2019 season was tough. Jones was fantastic this past season for the Lions, and opposite Kenny Golladay, has been one of the top wideouts in the entire game. Last season, he’s put up 779 yards and 9 touchdowns, which are solid numbers for Detroit. More than that, he has given the Lions a formidable 1-2 punch with Golladay and has been very dependable this season.
Jones had to prove he could come back off last season’s knee injury which cost him the end of the 2018 season, and he was able to do that with a massive season thus far in 2019. It’s safe to say Jones will continue to put in the good work for the Lions and as a result, should be earning himself love.
It’s unfortunate to say the least that he would get hurt once again, late in a season, but moving forward the Lions will be looking for Jones to be a strong option for them in 2020. That should be able to be the case, and he could even be one of the best players in the league to boot.
If all else fails, Jones has his silky smooth voice to fall back on. Talk about a double threat.