EllisUnit
Vote RED!!!
http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/sports/fb/texansfront/7684154.html
Found this to be interesting especially the first line.
There must have been two or three times over the years when the Texans toyed with the idea of cutting Jacoby Jones.
"When he was young, he frustrated me," Gary Kubiak said. "To see how gifted he was and to know that if I could get him to buy in to what it is to be a pro ..."
The coach points to a chair in his office.
"We all kind of battled him for a couple of years," he said. "We've had some rough talks in this office, he and I. I left him at home when we went to Jacksonville one year."
So why didn't you cut him?
"When you draft players, your job as a coach is to develop (them)," Kubiak said. "When you get somebody who has all that talent but you're battling other things that are keeping him from being as good as he can be, you've got to figure out how to go and fix it. If it's off the field, on the field, whatever. He has responded to the battle."
Some of us figured Kubiak would be happy to show Jones the door and go sign another wide receiver this offseason. Yes, Jones was coming off his best season, when he caught 51 balls and played particularly well while Andre Johnson was injured.
But he dropped some balls and didn't always seem to take the whole thing real seriously. How much could the Texans trust Jones?
"He's still got some inconsistent things about him that he's got to correct, but I think he's immensely talented and I think he can help us," Texans general manager Rick Smith said. "I think (last season) was a product of his personal maturation process."
Far from shopping for another wideout, Kubiak and Smith put re-signing Jones near the top of their to-do list. Kubiak said the Texans had invested so much in helping him become a productive NFL player that the last thing he wanted to do was watch him go someplace else and do great things.
"He's come a long damn way," Kubiak said.
Track wasn't his dream
Indeed, Jones has come a long damn way. He grew up in New Orleans' Ninth Ward, raised by his mom and great-grandmothers.
He was a not-so-strapping 5-7 and 160 pounds soaking wet when he graduated from high school and accepted a track scholarship to Southeastern University.
But track didn't float Jones' boat, so he transferred to Lane College and walked on to the football team. That's about the time something crazy happened. He began to grow. And grow.
He stood 6-2 by the time he left Lane, and when the Texans took him in the third round of the 2007 draft, he was on the verge of an improbable dream.
"When I was little, I would tell people, 'I'm going to the League,' " Jones said. "They were like, 'Yeah, whatever. What league?' "
The thing is, he still didn't really know the game. At least he didn't know the game the way a kid who'd played all his life would have known it.
Jones had gone out for football in high school, but he didn't play much until his senior season. Back then, he was a track guy wasting everybody's time on a football field. When he got to the Texans, he was a happy-go-lucky kid who and let's be kind about this - didn't take things as seriously as he should have.
"I was like a chicken with my head cut off at times," he said.
'Flashes of excellence'
Even when Kubiak would be frustrated, he kept looking at the size and speed, and he hoped there would be a time when Jones either figured things out or ended up looking for work in the real world.
Jones was lucky to have so many role models around him during his summers in Houston. There were Andre Johnson, Kevin Walter and, for a time, Keenan McCardell.
"I learned so much from those guys," Jones said. "I didn't really know the game, and there were times I didn't know the things I was supposed to do. They were great to me. Coach Kubiak treated me like one of his own, and I appreciate him for that. He helped me become a man on the field and off. He told me I had guys around me I could learn from, and I took it to heart. Toward the end of the season, the light went off in my head."
The Texans saw him as a special-teams guy who got a few snaps at wide receiver for a year or two. But the more playing time Jones got, the more he showed he could contribute at wide receiver, especially in three starts at the end of last season when he caught 17 balls for 235 yards.
"He had flashes of excellence," quarterback Matt Schaub said, "and that's what we expect of him. He has really matured a lot, and he needs to take that next step. We really expect him to. We think he'll take off. The more he's out there, the more comfortable he gets."
Jones smiles when asked about this. He has come so far since high school, yet he seems to be about the only person who hasn't been surprised.
"I've had a lot of guys help me," he said.
Read more: http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/sports/fb/texansfront/7684154.html#ixzz1UBEq7NWs
Found this to be interesting especially the first line.
There must have been two or three times over the years when the Texans toyed with the idea of cutting Jacoby Jones.
"When he was young, he frustrated me," Gary Kubiak said. "To see how gifted he was and to know that if I could get him to buy in to what it is to be a pro ..."
The coach points to a chair in his office.
"We all kind of battled him for a couple of years," he said. "We've had some rough talks in this office, he and I. I left him at home when we went to Jacksonville one year."
So why didn't you cut him?
"When you draft players, your job as a coach is to develop (them)," Kubiak said. "When you get somebody who has all that talent but you're battling other things that are keeping him from being as good as he can be, you've got to figure out how to go and fix it. If it's off the field, on the field, whatever. He has responded to the battle."
Some of us figured Kubiak would be happy to show Jones the door and go sign another wide receiver this offseason. Yes, Jones was coming off his best season, when he caught 51 balls and played particularly well while Andre Johnson was injured.
But he dropped some balls and didn't always seem to take the whole thing real seriously. How much could the Texans trust Jones?
"He's still got some inconsistent things about him that he's got to correct, but I think he's immensely talented and I think he can help us," Texans general manager Rick Smith said. "I think (last season) was a product of his personal maturation process."
Far from shopping for another wideout, Kubiak and Smith put re-signing Jones near the top of their to-do list. Kubiak said the Texans had invested so much in helping him become a productive NFL player that the last thing he wanted to do was watch him go someplace else and do great things.
"He's come a long damn way," Kubiak said.
Track wasn't his dream
Indeed, Jones has come a long damn way. He grew up in New Orleans' Ninth Ward, raised by his mom and great-grandmothers.
He was a not-so-strapping 5-7 and 160 pounds soaking wet when he graduated from high school and accepted a track scholarship to Southeastern University.
But track didn't float Jones' boat, so he transferred to Lane College and walked on to the football team. That's about the time something crazy happened. He began to grow. And grow.
He stood 6-2 by the time he left Lane, and when the Texans took him in the third round of the 2007 draft, he was on the verge of an improbable dream.
"When I was little, I would tell people, 'I'm going to the League,' " Jones said. "They were like, 'Yeah, whatever. What league?' "
The thing is, he still didn't really know the game. At least he didn't know the game the way a kid who'd played all his life would have known it.
Jones had gone out for football in high school, but he didn't play much until his senior season. Back then, he was a track guy wasting everybody's time on a football field. When he got to the Texans, he was a happy-go-lucky kid who and let's be kind about this - didn't take things as seriously as he should have.
"I was like a chicken with my head cut off at times," he said.
'Flashes of excellence'
Even when Kubiak would be frustrated, he kept looking at the size and speed, and he hoped there would be a time when Jones either figured things out or ended up looking for work in the real world.
Jones was lucky to have so many role models around him during his summers in Houston. There were Andre Johnson, Kevin Walter and, for a time, Keenan McCardell.
"I learned so much from those guys," Jones said. "I didn't really know the game, and there were times I didn't know the things I was supposed to do. They were great to me. Coach Kubiak treated me like one of his own, and I appreciate him for that. He helped me become a man on the field and off. He told me I had guys around me I could learn from, and I took it to heart. Toward the end of the season, the light went off in my head."
The Texans saw him as a special-teams guy who got a few snaps at wide receiver for a year or two. But the more playing time Jones got, the more he showed he could contribute at wide receiver, especially in three starts at the end of last season when he caught 17 balls for 235 yards.
"He had flashes of excellence," quarterback Matt Schaub said, "and that's what we expect of him. He has really matured a lot, and he needs to take that next step. We really expect him to. We think he'll take off. The more he's out there, the more comfortable he gets."
Jones smiles when asked about this. He has come so far since high school, yet he seems to be about the only person who hasn't been surprised.
"I've had a lot of guys help me," he said.
Read more: http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/sports/fb/texansfront/7684154.html#ixzz1UBEq7NWs
