Philadelphia Eagles: 3 reasons Byron Jones should be free agent target
By Brian Cass
The stats don’t tell the whole story here
When assessing just how good Jones is, many fans will point to the fact that he hasn’t recorded an interception over the past two seasons. Turnovers are a huge factor in winning football games, so it’s fair to be a bit concerned with that stat.
What Jones lacks in play making ability he makes up for with his man-to-man coverage, where he had a forced incompletion rate of 15.1 percent in 2019, which ranked 22nd among all corners, according to Pro Football Focus. He also only allowed 11 yards per reception last season, which also ranked 22nd among corners.
If a corner is playing man coverage at a high level, like Jones has done over the past two seasons, that corner won’t have many opportunities to make an interception because the opposing quarterback simply won’t throw their way.
Interceptions are great and all, but a shut down corner who can line up and play effective man coverage is invaluable, especially in the Eagles defensive scheme.
Football fans can look at statistics all they want to determine whether certain players are a good fit, but there are other ways to consider potential impact as well, which is arguably the case with Jones.