JONES AIMS TO PROVE METTLE
NFLER set for Giants training camp
EAST RUTHERFORD, N.J. It’s a long way from the grain-gathering capital of Canada — Weyburn — to the Big Apple.
In so many ways, longer than the mere 3,000-kilometre crosscontinental distance. Culturally, for instance. And the media. And, well, you name it.
Football, too.
Yet here, proud Weyburn native Brett Jones — a former star offensive lineman with the University of Regina Rams and the CFL’S Calgary Stampeders — has resumed his battle to keep his job as starting centre on the NFL’S New York Giants.
Jones is entering Year 4 in the NFL, after a brief but successful turn with the Stampeders.
Jones hadn’t been a high-buzz CFL prospect coming out of the U of R back in the winter of 2013, let alone a player on any NFL draft watch list.
“Some NFL teams had talked to me and asked for my film, but a lot of teams said, ‘You’re probably too small,’ ” said Jones, 26, shortly after reporting for training camp.
Jones stands six-foot-two and 312 pounds — short even for a centre by any traditional NFL offensive lineman’s barometer.
“That’s why I decided I’d play in the CFL for two years, and prove that I could play against better, American talent,” Jones said. “That was my way to get into the NFL.”
The Stampeders selected Jones late in the second round of the 2013 CFL draft, 16th overall.
Jones made a sudden impact on the Stamps’ O -line. He was named the CFL’S most outstanding rookie in 2013, and a year later was named the league’s most outstanding offensive lineman, in anchoring Calgary’s Grey Cup champion offensive line.
Jones jumped to the NFL a few months later, signing with the Giants. He didn’t play in 2015 as a backup centre/guard after injuring a knee, but started one game at guard in 2016, and started 13 games at centre last year, including the final 12.
His first contract having expired, Jones re-signed with the Giants this past spring on a second-round restricted-free-agent tender — a one-year, $2.9-million contract. A prove-it deal.
Jones intends to prove it.
When training camp practices begin, Jones will resume battling journeyman Jon Halapio for the starting centre job. Both can play centre or guard, but the six-foot-three, 317-pound Halapio — a fifthyear NFLER — began getting more and more of Jones’ first-team reps as spring practices wound down by mid-june.
Is it tough having to basically root against a good friend now that Halapio is competing for Jones’ job?
“Naw, maybe it’s just my Canadian background, or whatever,” Jones said. “I don’t blame him for anything. It’s different, yes, but at the same time we’re still friends and I won’t hold anything against him, no matter what happens.
“It’s been a long journey for both of us to get to this point, and we both understand that. I’m just going to give it my all, and in the end I’ll be happy I was able to put my best foot forward and do the best I could do.”
Jones’ height, again, could wind up disfavouring him. But he’s to the point in his career, he said, when such talk no longer bothers him.
“Yeah, that’s something that always has followed me throughout my career — that I’m too short,” he said. “But at the end of the day, I’m a football player, and I can play. I know that. I’ve just got to prove to everyone else that I can do it.
“Each year, you have to prove yourself. They ’re constantly trying to replace you, especially in this league. There are so many guys who can play; it’s just whether or not they get a chance. For me, personally, I just want to get better individually as a player and just control what I can control.
“I love to play football, and love to prove people wrong, so I’m excited for my next opportunity to do that, and excited to have a great camp.”
It’s exceedingly rare for a CFL offensive line starter, even a star as Jones was, to make a successful leap to the NFL. Especially one who played his college ball in Canada. Yet Jones said it’s difficult to distinguish the level of offensive-line play between the NFL and CFL.
“The yard off the ball is such a difference for offensive linemen in the CFL,” he said. “The angles change, and just the rate of play changes. It’s all about quickness and the first step here, whereas in the CFL it’s more about being able to get more steps on the ground after contact.
“The game is a lot different here, and I think I realized that once I got here. I would say overall that the games are so different, between the NFL and CFL, that it’s hard to relate the two.”
Jones is not rare among NFL players in that he’s so nice off the field, you might wonder whether he has enough nasty in him to compete successfully in the cutthroat world of professional football. But he indeed has that nasty switch for on the field, he said.
Jones pointed to 15th-year Giants quarterback Eli Manning as a better example. On the field, Peyton’s younger brother is a competitive assassin. Off the field?
“He’s humble, friendly — really just a nice dude,” Jones said. “He’s great to everybody, and it’s been great to be able to work with him and be able to snap the ball to him. It’s a great experience each and every day, and I don’t ever take it for granted.”
Again, that’s Jones’s heartland upbringing talking.
“I grew up in Weyburn, but not on a farm,” Jones said. “My dad actually grew up on a farm, and my mom grew up in Regina. My Dad (Robert Jones) is a pharmacist, and my Mom (Cheryl Roundy) is a chiropractor, so it was a little different than you might think.
“The small town, you get to know everybody. I really enjoyed my time growing up there. It’s such a great place. Great people that live there.”
Jones said since joining the NFL in 2015 he spends much of his offseason time in Weyburn.
“I go back home every year,” he said. “Yup. I like the winter.”
Really? The Canadian prairie winters?
“Yeah,” Jones responded. “They’re harsh, they’re cold. But I’m used to it, so it’s all good.”