The Six Degrees of Separation That Led Patriots Third-Rounder Marcus Jones to New England

The Patriots are usually unpredictable in the NFL Draft, but then there are picks like Houston’s Marcus Jones.

New England had an obvious need at cornerback after losing Pro Bowlers J.C. Jackson and Stephon Gilmore over the last calendar year. Furthermore, the Pats’ secondary depth was no match for Buffalo in their final two contests against the Bills, and All-Pro returner Gunner Olszewski is now a Pittsburgh Steeler.

With the 85th overall pick in the third round of the 2022 NFL Draft, the Patriots addressed two holes with one selection by drafting the electric Jones, the 2021 Paul Hornung Award Winner.

For those unfamiliar with the Paul Hornung Award, it’s given to college football’s most versatile player as someone who played multiple roles on offense, defense, and special teams.

New England’s third-round pick had 47 tackles, five interceptions, four return touchdowns, and 113 yards and another score on 12 offensive touches in his last season for the Cougars.

Jones was an AP First-Team All-American defensive back and the AAC’s Special Teams Player of the Year. However, his versatility and ability to fill multiple roles isn’t the only thing that made Jones a perfect Patriot.

In an interview with CLNS Media, University of Houston defensive backs coach David Rowe connected the dots to the six degrees of separation that led Jones to New England.

“I know Bill [Belichick] has drafted Rutgers guys in the past. I played with Devin McCourty, Duron Harmon, and Logan Ryan. I actually played with Steve Belichick. We graduated together. He [Marcus Jones] fits that mold perfectly,” Rowe told CLNS Media.

“[Marcus Jones] is the same type of person as those guys. Hard workers, smart football players, very competitive on the field, and don’t have to worry about issues off the field.”

Rowe was a three-year starter at defensive back for the Scarlet Knights in the same secondary as several current and former Patriots players during his playing career.

But the Patriots connections to the Houston program don’t stop there. New England’s southwest area scout, Alex Brooks, who received praise from Director of Player Personnel Matt Groh after the team selected Jones and Baylor wide receiver Tyquan Thornton, is a close friend of Rowe’s.

“We’re neighbors, so we live in the same apartment complex,” Rowe said of Brooks. “He’s been hounding me all year about Marcus, and he finally got it done.”

If that’s not enough for the Patriots to draft Jones, here’s one more key element.

Houston’s associate head coach and defensive coordinator, Doug Belk, is a former graduate assistant and cornerbacks coach on, you guessed it, Nick Saban’s staff at Alabama.

Belk was in Tuscaloosa working for Saban from 2014 to 2016, making a quick two-year stop at West Virginia before following head coach Dana Holgorsen to the Cougars.

With Belk’s background in Saban’s system at Alabama, Houston is running a coverage system that majors in similar schemes as the Crimson Tide, which carries over to New England.

“We’ll run some split-safety stuff. We’ll run some Rip/Liz [match coverage], and obviously man-to-man,” Rowe told me in our phone conversation on Monday evening.

“I think the one thing Marcus really excels at in the slot is playing man to man. He’ll be able to run and cover anybody in our league, and just his pre-snap awareness is what separates him from a lot of guys. That comes with doing extra work when you aren’t around the coaches—his work ethic and watching film. I’ve only seen a few people master that,” Rowe continued.

Despite only measuring in at 5-foot-8 and 174 pounds, the Houston coaching staff trusted Jones to defend various types of receivers regardless of the size of his opponent.

For example, Jones matched up against Memphis’s speedy slot receiver Calvin Austin III (5-7, 170 pounds) and Cincinnati wideout Alec Pierce (6-3, 211 pounds) last season. Pierce was a second-round pick by Indianapolis, while Austin was a fourth-rounder by Pittsburgh.

In back-and-forth battles, Jones held Pierce and Austin to a combined 168 receiving yards and one touchdown, with two interceptions in the game against Memphis.

(Jones breaks up a pass intended for Austin above)

“We really wanted him to be on their best receiver, so it was never really about, ‘oh, this guy is 6-4. This guy is fast. This guy is a big, strong guy.’ It didn’t really matter. We wanted Marcus on the guy regardless,” Rowe said.

Along with his coverage talent, Jones also had a combined nine kick and punt return touchdowns in his collegiate career, which started at Troy University.

With an estimated 40-yard dash under 4.4 seconds, Jones told Rowe that he would “wow” him as a returner, but it wasn’t until he got on Houston’s campus that he realized how electric he was.

“When I first got the job, he said you are coaching two of the best corners in the league and one of the best returners in the nation, and I was like, ‘one of the best returners in the nation? Yeah, yeah, yeah.’”

“Then, throughout the season, I’m like holy [expletive], this guy is really good back there,” Rowe said. “One of the games came down to under a minute left, and he takes the ball back against SMU. Probably one of the greatest plays I’ve ever seen.”

Although Jones loves contributing on special teams, Rowe says that the Pats rookie wants to prove at the next level that he’s a shutdown corner as well.

“At Rutgers, we weren’t the most gifted. But we were smart enough to know what this position or this situation will give us,” Rowe continued. “He’s just a smart football player.”

The Patriots are known for targeting high IQ football players who add value in multiple phases, with Jones as the latest versatile defensive back to find his way to New England.

After two surprises at the top of the draft, Belichick made one of the draft’s most predictable picks by selecting a corner molded by a former Rutgers star and an Alabama assistant coach.

If Jones is cut from the same cloth as Devin McCourty and other Scarlet Knights, he’ll be a perfect fit for a Patriots team needing explosive playmakers on defense and special teams.