Adam Jones Answering Critics

[savagehenry54]

Adam Jones came to Cincinnati last May amidst jeers from many Bengal fans and the usual outdated jokes and subsequent snickers whenever Mike Brown signs a "troubled" player.

He said all the right things and went about the business of preparing for the coming season but what sort of contribution he was going to make was anyone's guess. After all, he hadn't played that well in Dallas right? He missed all of 2007 and 2009 and part of 2008 due to suspensions and off field issues, didn't he? Wasn't he one half of the TNA professional wrestling promotion's tag team champions? This dude can't play ball anymore, can he?

Apparently, he can. As the Bengals nickelback, Jones is a huge reason the defense is ranked ninth in the league vs. the pass in spite of a below average pass rush. Johnathan Joseph and Leon Hall were already considered by many to be the best cornerback tandem in the league. Now with Jones in the fold, the NFL's best duo probably became it's best trio in short order and just in time. Apparently there is some sort "dynamic duo" or other operating on the other side of the ball, although results there have been more mixed. In spite of the hype surrounding the offense, it's been the defense that has keyed the Bengals two victories in this four game old season.

Jones has played in three of those games, missing one with a shoulder injury. In those three games Adam has five tackles, three passes defensed and a pick. Those numbers may not sound all that impressive until you extrapolate them out over a full season and remember that as a nickelback, he's a part time player, albeit a very key one in a pass happy league. He's on pace for 25 tackles, 15 passes defensed and five interceptions. That's a good year's work for a starting corner, let alone a nickel. For a team that has issues pressuring the quarterback, a nickelback of Jones' pedigree is proving to be worth his weight in gold.

In spite of the well documented misdeeds in his past, Jones is in the process of proving that people can change. Young men do on occasion learn and grow from their mistakes. In a world of shallow perspectives, short attention spans and tweets it's nice to see a guy like Jones let the distractions and his own demons alike fall off to the wayside. He appears to have taken inventory of his life and is no longer taking on stock that only adds up to trouble. It's as though he has concentrated his focus on what is most important to him and right now, football is very high on that list of priorities. He's playing like a man who almost lost something he loves dearly, something that is fleeting to begin with and that he dare not flirt with the possibility of losing again.

Personally, I trashed the signing as much as anyone but at this point I'm of a mind to echo the sentiments of Bengals defensive coordinator Mike Zimmer when he noted about Jones, "So far, so good". So far, so good indeed.