JACKSON — Javancy Jones left Noxubee County High School for the Jackson State football program in 2013 with a bevy of professional options at his disposal.
Jones assumed football wasn’t one of them.
“My whole mind-set coming in was use football, don’t let football use me,” he said. “Getting a degree was all I was thinking about.”
Now in his final semester before earning a coveted degree, football has dominated his thinking. While taking a couple of required classes to finish his degree, Jones has been preparing since the end of the football season for the NFL draft.
Today, scouts will see him at Jackson State’s Pro Day, which Jones hopes solidifies his status as a late-round pick.
Jones could have avoided all of this. At the end of his junior year, he said the Canadian Football League’s Winnipeg Blue Bombers offered him a contract to begin a professional football career. But taking the offer would have robbed Jones of the chance to complete his biggest goal in college.
“I just can’t leave. I have to get a degree,” Jones said. “For people to think I had the talent to leave after my junior year at a small school, I thought that was great, but I knew the percentages. At the big-time school, you do three (years) and you’re done; in the SWAC (Southwestern Athletic Conference), you have to be here for four years.”
That decision set up a final year Jones said has been a grind. In addition to earning first-team All-SWAC honors as a defensive end and second-team honors as a linebacker, the 6-foot-2, 245-pounder earned second-team American Football Coaches Association (AFCA) honors as a defensive end on the Football Championship Subdivision (FCS) All-America team. Jones posted 82 tackles (19 1/2 for loss) and four sacks. The latter figure was second in the conference.
Jones’ season set the stage for a draft preparation training phase that sees him start every day with a two-mile run at 6 a.m. He then does yoga at 9:30 a.m. and pilates at 10:30 am. He breaks for class at 1 p.m. before speed training in the afternoon and weightlifting in the evening before repeating the cycle the next day.
Staying in Jackson for draft preparation isn’t the traditional approach. Many prospects go to facilities around the country for months at a time to take part in training designed to get them ready to impress the scouts, but Jones likes it this way. Even if he didn’t have to stay in school to finish his degree, he likely would have stayed in Jackson to avoid the distractions of a bigger city.
Jones does everything with the help of a nutritionist who ensures he eats five to six times a day. His meals consist of things such as lean turkey, rice, sweet potatoes, grilled chicken, fruit, and salad without dressing.”
Jones’ diet isn’t the only new thing. He said he rarely did yoga and pilates and that he even has taken his first sessions of ballet. Jones said he sees ballet helping him with balance, hip flexibility, and foot control.
“I always try to make sure I look the part in whatever I do,” Jones said of ballet, “but that’s one of the toughest things I’ve ever had to do.”
Jones said the training is designed to help him become a better football player, not an athlete better suited for Pro Day and individual workouts.
“A lot of people just train for a Pro Day, but I’ve been training for a whole season. I’ve been preparing myself to make a 53-man roster,” he said. “If they bring me into camp — whether I get drafted, sign a free-agent deal, or just a rookie mini-camp tryout — once I get in camp, they can’t send me home. I’m not going home.”
The notion of being in a NFL practice seemed unlikely when Jones arrived at Jackson State as a 195-pound freshman. Jones remembered that possibility becoming real to him pretty quickly, particularly after winning the SWAC’s Freshman of the Year award.
“I saw the speed of the game wasn’t as fast as people made it seem. Once I saw I was comfortable, I thought, ‘Maybe I need to put more work into this and try to get to the next level.’
Jones said he went from 195 pounds as a freshman to 230 as a sophomore. He said a new dedication to the weight room was a primary factor behind his development.
“Putting the McDonalds down and eating a salad,” helped, too, Jones said.
Today will be Jones’ personal combine, of sorts. He plans to do many of the traditional combine events such as shuttle runs, broad jumps, and vertical jumps and to do position workouts at defensive end and linebacker. If all goes according to plan, Jones could realize two dreams on the same day.
April 29 is the day Jones is set to graduate with a degree in early childhood education. It also will be the third and final day — rounds four through seven — of the NFL draft.
“What if,” Jones said, cracking a smile and shaking his head in mild disbelief, “I’m walking across the stage and I get that call?”
Follow Dispatch sports writer Brett Hudson on Twitter @Brett_Hudson
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