Ernest Jones has called the defensive shots at his last two football stops, becoming a Southeastern Conference recruit and NFL draft pick in the process.
He is now one of the younger defenders on his newest team, but the Los Angeles Rams have the vision of allowing him to eventually take over the play-calling reins.
The rookie linebacker Jones is anticipated to call the schemes on a defense featuring Pro Bowlers Aaron Donald, Leonard Floyd, Jalen Ramsey and the league’s best defensive unit from a year ago, all before his first official Sunday tackle is made. Jones himself acknowledged during a video conference with reporters on Wednesday that his new team will want to see his vocal leadership.
“That’s what I was kind of brought in here for: To be vocal and continue to do what I’ve done in college,” Jones told reporters. “Just being that middle linebacker, you’re the one that gets the calls out, you’re the one orchestrating up front … just being that leader, being vocal and making everybody trust you is what I’m trying to get right now.”
The South Carolina Gamecock is absorbing and learning the Rams’ ways in his first organized team activities (OTAs). Already, he got the attention of Donald.
Jones told reporters that he called out a formation during a practice session last week at the Rams’ training headquarters in Thousand Oaks. Donald, however, couldn’t hear the words Jones said. Then Donald himself asked Jones to repeat the verbiage. Jones admitted to reporters that he had a frozen-in-time moment.
“I about froze up,” Jones recalled with a laugh. “I was like, ‘Bro, this is Aaron Donald!’”
Jones will be tasked to learn the Rams defense and become cohesive with his new teammates moving forward, but one man already believes Jones is equipped for the role of guiding an NFL defense: His former high school head coach.
Jones’ Football IQ Was Developed at a Young Age
Franklin Stephens, who coached Jones all in four years of varsity at Ware County High in Georgia, told Heavy that the ex-Gamecock developed his football IQ before becoming an upperclassman.
“He’s just one of those kids who God blessed with football intelligence. He’s going to be a coach on the field,” Stephens said. “One of the most intelligent football kids. His football IQ is unbelievable.”
Stephens described Jones as the defender who constantly studied his playbook, knew where his teammates were supposed to line up on Friday nights and dissected opposing plays — all before his junior year at Ware County.
Stephens, who now coaches at McEachern High, added that Jones’ work ethic and understanding of what it takes to get on the NCAA radar came before his junior year — proving Jones’ desire to avoid complacency with his football skills.
“There’s a picture I have that I show my kids of a kid in the ninth grade that shows the transition that his body made,” Stephens explained. “His sophomore year, he was probably 6-foot, 175-pounds. But I used to call him ‘Coach Jones,’ because he was so intelligent.”
By his junior year, Jones elevated his weight to more than 200 pounds after being told he needed to bulk up. “And low and behold, in the offseason going into his junior year he grew an inch/inch-and-a-half and gained about 30 pounds. He’s 6-foot-1 and some change, and now he looked the part,” Stephens said.
Leading an SEC Defense
Jones entered South Carolina University as Georgia’s 56th-best prospect for the 2018 recruiting class and the nation’s 47th-ranked linebacker, according to 247Sports. He planted himself as the permanent starter at “Mike” linebacker by his true sophomore year in 2019, leading the Gamecocks with 97 tackles — 20 more than his closest teammate — in 12 starts.
His junior season saw the vocal side on display. Jones was named team captain, brought his field intellect in nine games and went on to lead South Carolina in tackles once again. Of his 86 tackles, a season-high 19 was piled against 2019 National Champion LSU.
Jones emerged as a Butkus Award semifinalist and became lauded by NFL Scouts for his field smarts and nose for the football. The Rams not only decided to draft him at No. 103 overall, but linebacker coach Chris Shula said in a video interview following the 2021 NFL draft that Jones was ‘exactly what we want in our linebackers.’
“He was someone we identified early in the process as a guy that really fits the mold of 𝙚𝙭𝙖𝙘𝙩𝙡𝙮 what we want in our linebackers.”
Inside the Draft: selecting @ernest_jones5 | @RocketMortgage
Jones Brings Same IQ & Work Ethic to Los Angeles
The 6-foot-2, 230-pounder said that his new teammates have been instrumental in giving him critiques and assisting his transition to the Rams defense, saying during the May 27 press conference, “They’ve all been helpful, each and every one of them.”
But the work ethic he created with the Gamecocks is what he aims to translate over to L.A.
“It’s completely different from South Carolina, but what we did at South Carolina was when it was time to learn and when it was something new, we got it done,” Jones said. “I’m taking that from here and … I’m just learning, like just ‘whatever it takes’ type thing, just steady going at the playbook, reading it, looking at it each and every day. Tryin’ to kind of like pick it where it was the same at South Carolina and just terminate it this way.”
Stephens thinks Jones will succeed with his new team.
“Ernest is that guy who will fit in well,” Stephens told Heavy. “He’s going to become that general on the football field. He’s going to call out the formations, call out what’s going to happen and he’s going to dissect what will happen.”
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Rams May Have Found Future Defensive Leader in Talented Rookie