Jonathan Jones feels like he's going through his rookie season all over again, and he's loving every second of it.
Jones, an undrafted free agent by the New England Patriots in 2016, has never hit the market during his nine-year career. The team kept him around because of his versatility and competitiveness, and the former Auburn defensive back got to be part of the final era of the Patriots' dynasty, winning two Super Bowls along the way.
Now 31 years old, Jones is ready to enter the next phase of his career and believes he still has the tools to be a meaningful contributor to an NFL team. He feels like the Washington Commanders, who signed him to a one-year deal, give him the best chance to do that.
"It's hard not to want to be a part of that," Jones said.
Jones didn't know much about the Commanders' history prior to the team expressing interest in him, but like many others around the league, he saw the results of the efforts general manager Adam Peters and head coach Dan Quinn had made to get the team headed in the right direction. One of the biggest surprises, he said, was how quickly they achieved that goal with the new coaches, players and staff members they brought in.
Though Jones and the Patriots didn't play the Commanders in 2024, he could see from the television broadcasts that the players played for each other and brought that positive energy to the sideline on Sundays. They played with a physical nature and competed on every snap, and that matched the style that Jones likes to bring to the field.
But Quinn was at the center of his motivation to join the Commanders. While he admitted he didn't know about the coaching staff outside of defensive coordinator Joe Whitt Jr., another former Auburn players whose father was a legendary coach for the program, he had heard about Quinn's reputation for respecting players and helping maximize their skill set. All the players he reached out to about Quinn gave glowing recommendations, and that included former Dallas Cowboys cornerback Stephon Gilmore.
Gilmore's message to Jones: playing for Quinn would be one of the best decisions he could make in his career.
"I couldn't find a person to say a bad thing about him," Jones said of Quinn.
It also helps that his new team has a quarterback it believes can help them win for the foreseeable future. Former No. 2 overall pick Jayden Daniels has already provided evidence he can be a franchise quarterback by putting up historical numbers both with his arm and legs as well as leading them to the conference championship game against the Philadelphia Eagles. Jones had a gamechanger like that for half his career with future Hall of Fame quarterback Tom Brady leading the Patriots' offense.
Jones smartly didn't compare the two but did acknowledge that having quarterbacks with that kind of talent can help give defenses more confidence.
"Your goals kind of shift," Jones said. "Sometimes on defense, you'll feel like you're trying to win the game. It has to be on you. And you'll shift to a point where there's certain teams...where as a defense, your job is like, 'Let me just get the ball back to our offense,' and if they have the ball on the last drive, we know we'll win that game."
And the Patriots won plenty of games in the first half of Jones' career. In the four years that Jones played with Brady, New England had a 50-14 record and made it to the playoffs each season. The franchise has been substantially less successful since Brady left to join the Tampa Buccaneers. They have only recorded one winning record and haven't returned to the postseason since being eliminated by the Tennessee Titans in the Wild Card round.
Jones would like to get back to winning games and hopefully get a third Super Bowl ring. He thinks his new team has some of the qualities required to accomplish that goal.
"The ownership has done a good job of implementing good coaches [and] the GM to bring good players in," Jones said. "We have a lot of good veterans who played a lot of good ball. They've got a lot of young players who are stepping up and making a lot of plays ... I think there's winning here. Last year, you could see it. There's potential to be great."
