Why the Chiefs need to Draft Dawand Jones in the First Round?

The Draft is 12 days away. Here at Chiefs Focus, we have put together this multi-articles covering several areas of offensive line play in 2023; Prediction on Jawaan Taylor, the top 3 OL at Left tackle for the team to consider, and myself explaining why the Chiefs look at Anton Harrison from Oklahoma to become the new left tackle of the Chiefs. Today, I look at one of the top right tackles in Ohio State’s Dawand Jones.

I made note of Jones in my December article based off the assumption that the Chiefs would let Andrew Wylie walk in free agency. I also made note that if Orlando Brown Jr was not retained, that left tackle would be another glaring need. Then our guys started watching his film in January which led to another article in Febuary explaining why the Chiefs should consider drafting Jones. Now we’re here with newly signed Jawaan Taylor who is expect to be the team’s new left tackle, the Chiefs can fulfill their biggest need by adding the 6-8 massive freak in Dawand Jones just like the previous February article suggested. Just like the Harrison article, I’ll explain 3 reasons why Dawand Jones will help the Chiefs?

He’s Freaking Huge:

Jones is the prototypical right tackle; size, length, build, athleticism, strength, and power are all elite. Not only are his physical traits extraordinary, his skill set in terms of sustaining blocks, hand usage, zone/man blocking, use of leverage, and efficiency are all equally impressive. The 6-foot-8, 375 pound offensive tackle from Indianapolis, Indiana, was thought of as a late second or maybe an early third round pick. But after showing out at the Senior Bowl and a lot of good impressions in the offseason, Jones has made his case for a late first round pick in this upcoming draft. He also opened plenty of eyes as he broke the Senior Bowl record for widest wingspan of 89-inches. Jones has proven himself as just a massive man who can dominate in the trenches. He knows he is a long and massive tackle who won’t beat anyone with speed to the edge, so he does a good job of controlling the rush once he makes contact, using grip strength and his brute power to throw off the momentum of a rusher. He can stop a rush on impact and plays with terrific power in his hands, delivering one of the most effective punches of any tackle in the class. Jones basically has the same size of Orlando Brown but is 30 pounds heavier (Brown is 345 pounds). Jim Nagy, the executive director of the Senior Bowl and NFL scout for almost two decades, compared Dawand Jones to Orlando Brown Jr.

His Playing Style reminds me of Mitchell Schwartz:

Jones simply serves as a mountain between pass-rushers and the quarterback. You can try going through him or around him, but it won’t happen so easily. Jones has rare size and length at tackle and he plays to it, effectively using his massive size and record-breaking 89-inch wingspan to keep pass-rushers at a stand still. He moves quickly off the snap for a man his size, quickly getting into his vertical set and making first contact more often times than not. That playing style reminds me so much of Mitchell Schwartz. Schwartz kept Mahomes clean throughout 2018-2020 before his back injury happened.

Dawand Jones did an impressive job protecting the future top-five draft pick in C.J. Stroud on the Ohio State Buckeyes last year. In his last two seasons, Jones played 1,430 snaps, and he allowed just 11 quarterback hurries, one quarterback hit, and only three sacks (zero of which came last season). That’s very impressive especially for a player who is Late 1st-2nd round player with Top 10 talent. In the run game, Jones wins with good pad level and hand usage to create leverage on defenders, continually running his feet through contact to sustain frontside and seal the backside. Just like Schwartz, Jones can be a well-rounded, rock solid player who can help transform the Chiefs OL from a just finishing 3rd in the fewest sacks allowed to possibly lesser sacks to being the best unanimous OL in the NFL.

Jones replacing Wylie would give the Chiefs a future All-Pro at right tackle:

I was doing my research and found that Andrew Wylie played 743 pass block snaps in the regular season in 2022, allowing 35 quarterback hurries, 5 quarterback hits and 9 sacks the most given up by a right tackle in the NFL. If you take the 791 pass block snaps by Jones from Ohio State, I used math by using a calculator and I took his total 3 sacks allowed on Stroud and divided by 791 snaps and you take the answer/formula and then multiply that number by Wylie’s 743 snaps, research says Jones would allow just 10 quarterback hurries (25 less than Wylie), 1 quarterback hit on Mahomes (4 less than Wylie allowed), and just 3 sacks allowed (6 less than Wylie). So what I am saying is because of that, it doesn’t matter if Jawaan Taylor plays left tackle even though he’s mainly played the right side in his first four seasons with the Jaguars. Taylor is an upgrade over Orlando Brown because he would allow less pressure and hits. I can see Taylor allowing the same number of sacks as Brown (4) but from the quarterback hit and pressure prespective, he’s an easy upgrade over Brown and Jones would simply replace Wylie with ease. I wouldn’t be surprised if Jones in year 1 has the same outcome like Lions’ right tackle Penei Sewell and become a Pro Bowler and maybe All-Pro in first season. He will be an All-Pro if the Chiefs select him.

Conclusion: 

I know Brett Veach is really going back and forth on choosing between Anton Harrison which keeps Taylor at his natural right tackle position or simply adding this massive 6-8 man Jones. There are not many players who have entered the league with Jones’ gigantic size, wingspan and mass, but he has been compared to Orlando Brown Jr., but his playing style resembles Chiefs legend Mitchell Schwartz.

Overall, Dawand Jones is a mountain of a man. Jones can be a little stiff and his technique needs work, but a man that size has no business moving as well as he does, and the 22-year-old can has the strength and mass you need to move NFL defenders. He’d be a nice flyer for a team that really needs to upgrade at right tackle like the Chiefs. He’s a 6-foot-8, 375-pound offensive tackle with the Potential to be an All-Pro. That’s Jonathan Ogden-level beef upfront. Jones was is projected to be selected by the Jaguars at No. 24 to replace Taylor at right tackle or the Bengals at No. 28 just to beef their line finally for Joe Burrow and they got Orlando Brown Jr., but the Chiefs could take advantage of his slight fall by moving up over the Jaguars at No. 23 where the Vikings pick or No. 26 where the Cowboys pick. Either way, the Chiefs need to address their biggest glaring need at offensive tackle and Jones would be the cherry on top of that Beautiful Ice Cream Sundae called the Chiefs O-line.