Notre Dame football: Breaking down the combine results of Tony Jones Jr.

After a productive season at running back for Notre Dame, coming into the combine Tony Jones Jr. was seen as a late-round draft pick or an undrafted free agent.

Despite putting up a productive stat line of 144 rushing attempts for 857 yards and six rushing touchdowns last season as the primary running back for Notre Dame’s football team, Tony Jones Jr. was viewed by most draft experts as being a fringe draft pick in the upcoming NFL Draft, with the most likely scenario of Jones being an undrafted free agent.

In order to improve his draft status, Jones Jr. would likely need a stellar performance at the NFL Combine. He would participate in the 40-yard dash, vertical jump, broad jump, twenty-yard shuttle, three-cone drill, and bench press events. However, the results would not be very beneficial for the draft hopes of Jones.

In the 40-yard dash event, Jones would post an official time of 4.68 seconds, which was second-worst among participating running backs with only Benny Lemay of UNC Charlotte running a slower time than Jones Jr.

The struggles would continue for Jones Jr. as he would only complete 13 reps in the bench press, which caused him to finish second-worst in that event as well. However, it was reported that the Irish running back suffered back spasms during the bench press event that may have led to his poor performance.

In the vertical jump, Jones Jr. would record a height of 32.5″ on his jump. Unfortunately, that number was good for sixth-worst amongst competing running backs and fell well short of the 41″ that Boston College’s AJ Dillon would post as the leader in the event.

The Notre Dame running back would record a broad jump distance of 119″, which placed him in a tie for the sixth-worst jump of any of the running backs competing in the event. It was a full 12″ short of AJ Dillon’s distance, as Dillon again represented the leader.

In the three-cone drill, Jones would have an official time of 7.18 seconds, which tied him with Deejay Dallas of Miami for the third-worst time of any of the running backs who took part in the event.

On a positive note, Jones did have the fifth-fastest time in the twenty-yard shuttle event. In that event, he posted an official time of 4.21 seconds, showing decent quickness and agility. Outside of JaMycal Hasty of Baylor University, who posted an insane 4.03 second time, Jones was close to the times of the other top competitors.

While Jones Jr. was seen as a fringe candidate to be drafted in the later rounds of the draft, his poor performance in the NFL Combine did nothing to help the former Notre Dame standout running back. Unfortunately, it likely hurt his case to be considered as a potential draft pick, making him more likely to be an undrafted free agent signing than a draft pick, if he is to land with an NFL team at all.

It is entirely possible that the back spasms that Jones Jr. suffered during the bench press portion of his combine directly impacted the remainder of his events.  If that is the case, then Jones Jr. could look to have some redemption during the Notre Dame Pro Day in March in an effort to improve his draft status.