Jones made roster as an undrafted rookie
He only played 1 high school season before junior college
MIAMI GARDENS — It was the summer of 2015, and Gary Griffin, the football coach at Rockford East High in Illinois, was told there was a senior waiting to meet him that was interested in playing football as an incoming transfer from Chicago.
He grabs a helmet and walks over, hopeful he’s about to meet a valuable addition to his team.
“I come out into the parking lot,” Griffin recalled from his first time meeting Robert Jones, who was flanked by two others. “I see an old dude, a little dude and a [very big] dude. Right away, I’m like, ‘I hope the [very big] dude is our guy.’ ”
Jones was about 6-foot-4, 260 pounds at the time, but he had never played football. Griffin gave him his introduction to the game, and that was how Jones’ football career began: As a senior in high school who first became interested in playing after watching Rockford East practice while visiting his uncle more than 80 miles northwest of the heart of Chicago.
That moment started a journey that would take Jones, after putting together tape from a total of eight high school games, through junior college, to Middle Tennessee State and, finally, the Miami Dolphins. The undrafted rookie found out on Tuesday he made the team’s 53-man roster after his first NFL training camp.
“Everybody texted, called me, congratulated me — because I came so far,” said the 6-4, 322-pound offensive lineman. “No one ever thought I’d be in this position. … Everybody was happy for me, and I’m just trying to make them proud.”
His mother, Lateasha Hopson, said, “To be honest, I cried because I never thought this would happen to my son. I know he’s very ambitious, and Robert is a go-getter. So I knew he would work hard to get to where he is, but you never would think that this would happen to your child.”
Football didn’t particularly interest Jones growing up. He was more into basketball. It also worked in his favor that a high school growth spurt coincided with his budding interest in football. He was utilized by Griffin as a blocking tight end that was bigger than some of his linemen in a run-heavy offense, and Jones would sometimes play defensive tackle.
Jones moved out from the south side of Chicago to live with his uncle, Reese Lewis, that year so he could be eligible to enroll at Rockford East. Lewis praises the way Hopson, his sister, raised him, keeping Jones safe from the streets in a childhood where he also spent time with his grandmother on the north side of town.
“She did everything she can,” Lewis said. “Everything was good for him, but it’s just the atmosphere of Chicago. It was a way better living situation [moving to Rockford].”
Added Hopson: “He was at the place that he wanted to be at that time. Maybe it wasn’t meant for him to do it here in Chicago, so when he went to Rockford, I guess he felt more comfortable. From there, he didn’t stop.”
Jones was a natural talent from that one season in high school.
“He was athletic as hell,” Griffin said. “That’s why I knew that would transition into him playing guard. I knew all the time he was going to be an NFL guard. I didn’t know if he was going to make it in Miami or end up in Detroit or somewhere else, but I knew he was an NFL guard. … He had such good feet and his hands — he
has super heavy hands. He just could grab you and take control of you.”
That was a trait Lewis noticed in Jones when he was even younger and would wrestle with him.
“Ever since he was little, he’s been over-aggressive,” Lewis said. “Even if me and him get to play fight — I’m his uncle; I’m roughing him up. I make sure my nephews are tough.”
Nonetheless, with a lack of tape and his academic situation coming out of high school, his post-graduation options were to either go the junior college route or work at Home Depot.
“He said, ‘You know what, Unc? I’m just going to go chase my dreams,’ ” Lewis said Jones told him. “It was murder she wrote ever since.”
Next stop: Highland Community College in Kansas.
“Man, ju-co is rough,” Jones said. “I was lucky enough I had coaches who pushed me. I had family members that stuck by my side and pushed me.”
Jones originally had it stuck in his head to play on the defensive line in junior college because he thought being an offensive lineman was boring.
A conversation with Griffin helped convince him when his high school coach started throwing out financial figures he felt were realistic for him to reach as an NFL offensive lineman.
“He said, ‘You think I can play in the NFL, Coach?’ ” Griffin remembers. “I said, ‘Absolutely I do.’ He said, ‘OK, I’ll play O-line.’ ”
Getting scholarship offers out of Highland made Jones believe he could reach the NFL. He was one step away. Jones didn’t have any Power Five offers, but Griffin believes Oklahoma would’ve come through if Jones would’ve remained on track to graduate a semester early.
“Coming from ju-co, it was hard, and I just kept my head down, kept working,” said Jones. “I took that with me when I went to Middle Tennessee, and I just tried to be the best player I can be.”
Jones played guard in junior college and right tackle at MTSU. He was All-Conference-USA honorable mention in 2019 and 2020, but was projected to play guard in the NFL.
After going undrafted, he
signed with the Dolphins in May. The odds were stacked against him once again, trying to make a roster on a team that used five picks in the first four rounds of the past three drafts on offensive linemen.
“He’s always been the underdog everywhere he went,” said Lewis, who noted Jones had to beat out returning starters at Highland and MTSU, “and it’s going to continue on in the NFL.”
Jones’ consistent training camp at second-team right guard led him to Sunday’s preseason finale at Cincinnati where he played every offensive snap, was sound throughout and even had a highlight-reel block where he threw a Bengals defender through the air.
Getting to make blocks like that, it’s safe to say Jones doesn’t find offensive line play boring anymore.
“Just being able to be aggressive in the trenches,” he said of what he loves about it. “Just me being able to go against another man and move him against his will. I feel like that’s the best part of playing offensive line.”
Two days later, Jones survived the Dolphins’ final cuts as one of nine offensive linemen kept on the 53-man roster.
“I never worried about it — not one moment,” Griffin said. “I watched that last preseason game, and I watched how well he played. I said, ‘If they don’t keep this dude, I’ll be highly surprised.’ ”
Dolphins coach Brian Flores views Jones and fellow undrafted rookie Trill Williams, a cornerback that also made the active roster, as pieces the team can develop.
“With continued development, we may have something, but a lot of that is on their plate,” said Flores. “I think we see some potential, but they’re going to have to continue doing the things that they’ve already started to do from a work-ethic standpoint, from a routine standpoint.”
Lewis has high hopes for his nephew.
“He’s going to get better. It’s just the beginning. He’s already on the mission,” he said. “He’s going to be great. You mark my words right here, right now: He’s going to be one of the greats to ever do their job.”