Ernest
Jones.
Ernest
Jones.
South Carolina· 6'1"· 230 lb· 4.65s 40
"A 6'1"/230 South Carolina MIKE with an SEC-leading senior tackle season and plus downhill instincts, but 32-inch arms, 4.65 speed and coverage questions vs. modern flex TEs — a Round-3 three-down projection sold on processing over tools."Pre-draft read
Plays a downhill MIKE role, aligning 4-5 yards deep in a two-point stack over the guards. He conducts pre-snap ID and front adjustments, triggering on run plays by reading pulling linemen and backfield flow. He beats pullers to the point with stack-and-shed technique. His tackling is textbook, wrapping low and driving through the ball-carrier's near hip, grading out as a reliable finisher.
In coverage he primarily works in hook/curl and middle-of-field zone, demonstrating plus depth and eyes to spot-drop into throwing windows. He is less comfortable carrying seam verticals against flex tight ends. On A-gap pressures he times the snap well, finishing as a heavy hitter through the interior gaps. His football IQ and communication are distinct separators.
Cover-3 match with a one-gap 4-front designed to generate free rushers and allow linebackers to play downhill.
Year 1 starter as a green-dot MIKE, eventually a long-term defensive signal-caller and run-game stalwart.
A Fangio two-high system that asks its linebackers to consistently carry flex tight ends downfield.
Jones's elite processing and downhill playmaking are best utilized in a scheme that prioritizes his run-stopping and communication while minimizing his exposure in deep coverage against agile pass-catchers.
Rams Revealed Ep. 74 — Ernest Jones on the Von Miller trade and his first NFL start
Rookie-year sit-down after the Week 8 Houston start where Jones inherited the MIKE role, forced a Davis Mills interception and became the defensive signal-caller for the eventual Super Bowl LVI champions.
NFL Top 100 Players of 2026 — #97 Ernest Jones IV
League-vote-based ranking on his 2025 Seahawks season as green-dot MIKE for a Super Bowl LX defense — a fifth-year snapshot of the processor who turned a Round-3 pick into two rings.
Making A Champion Ep. 4 — Ernest Jones IV on the 2025 Seahawks
Long-form conversation on the mid-season identity shift that carried Seattle to Super Bowl LX, filmed from the perspective of the defensive signal-caller who ran Mike Macdonald's front all year.
Jones was evaluated as a MIKE-only linebacker with elite processing skills, reliable tackling, and strong leadership, serving as the defensive signal-caller for South Carolina. This profile presented a clear projection of a future three-down starter, emphasizing a high floor for consistent, intelligent play.
The context for his evaluation included leading the SEC with 85 tackles in 2020 across eight games and earning Butkus Award semifinalist honors, highlighting his production on a rebuilding roster. He handled the entire front and secondary check system, demonstrating his capacity for green-dot responsibilities from an early stage in his collegiate career.
Concerns revolved around an average athletic profile, including a 4.65 forty and sub-32-inch arms, which limited his ceiling in coverage against more athletic pass-catchers. Despite these athletic flags, consensus projected him as a third-round selection, valued for his intelligence and on-field leadership.
- 01
Diagnostic Processor
Diagnostic processor — He reads pulling linemen and backfield flow to arrive at run lanes a half-count early or reroute off blocks.
- 02
Tackling Mechanics
Tackling mechanics — His textbook tackling consistently wraps low and drives through targets to produce elite missed-tackle rates.
- 03
Program Production
Program production — He led the SEC with 85 tackles across eight games in 2020 and earned Butkus Award semifinalist honors.
- 04
Green-Dot Communicator
Green-dot communicator — He managed South Carolina's entire front and secondary check system as a junior.
- 05
Downhill Trigger
Downhill trigger — He displays plus timing on A- and B-gap pressures, making him a legitimate blitz threat.
- 01
Average Athletic Profile
Average athletic profile — His 6.96 RAS limits his ceiling in dynamic coverage situations against faster players.
- 02
Arm Length Concerns
Arm length concerns — His sub-32-inch arms affect his ability to stack and shed cleanly against larger linemen.
- 03
Coverage Ceiling
Coverage ceiling — He is less comfortable carrying seam verticals against flex tight ends, limiting his overall coverage ability.
- 04
Limited Scheme Fit
Limited scheme fit — His fringe recovery speed affects his scheme fit against isolated backs and slots over the middle.
Relative Athletic Score (Kent Lee Platte) benchmarks combine/pro-day numbers against every measured prospect at the position since 1987. 10.00 is elite; 5.00 is average.
— — — positional median (p50)
- 40 yd
- 4.65sp50
- Vertical
- 38.5inp50
- Broad jump
- —in
- Three-cone
- —s
- Shuttle
- —s
- Bench
- —rep
| Yr | Team | G | Tkl | Sk | Int | PD | FF |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2018 | South Carolina | 5 | 16 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| 2019 | South Carolina | 12 | 97 | 1 | 2 | 5 | 0 |
| 2020 | South Carolina | 9 | 86 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Career | — | 26 | 199 | 2 | 2 | 5 | 0 |
A dash means the figure is not published by a source we trust — never a zero we invented.
Full-time three-down MIKE ceiling as a Round-3 processor who signals the front, produces 140+ tackles annually and holds up in zone coverage — without Warner's elite hips or blitz-package usage.
Same tackling-and-processing bet — a MIKE whose recognition and green-dot communication outran a merely-good athletic profile into a decade of Pro Bowl-level snaps.
Volume-tackle MIKE whose lack of coverage tools eventually made him a two-down role player once opponents identified the seam mismatch — Jones's downside if the hip fluidity capped out.
Everything above is the pre-draft evaluation. This section is what actually happened — updated year over year.
De los grandes hits de la clase. Titular MLB en Rams desde año 2, líder defensivo del equipo 2022-23 con 145+ tackles/temporada. Traspasado a TEN mid-2024 en un movimiento sorpresivo (choque de perspectiva), firmó con SEA en 2024 (3yr/$33M) donde es green-dot de la defensa con su esquema. Tackle machine consistente.
**Pre-draft context.** Ernest Jones IV arrived at the 2021 NFL Draft as the SEC's premier off-ball production linebacker and one of the cleanest character evaluations in the class. A 6'1", 230-pound MIKE out of Waycross, Georgia, he spent three seasons at South Carolina, growing from a special-teams contributor into the full-time defensive signal-caller who led the SEC with 85 tackles across the pandemic-shortened 2020 slate (a 111.5-tackle pace over a 13-game projection). He was a Butkus Award semifinalist, second-team All-SEC and the most-trusted defender on a rebuilding Columbia program that was losing games while Jones was making them competitive. The athletic profile, however, was pedestrian: 4.65 forty at his pro day, ~32-inch arms, no three-cone or shuttle on record, and a 6.96 RAS that graded average against modern MIKE benchmarks. The board consensus landed him firmly in the third-round range — a projected three-down starter whose instincts, tackling and program-level trust outran the athletic testing rather than a top-100 talent whose traits demanded early capital.
**NFL fit — LA Rams.** Los Angeles took Jones at #103 to run the middle of the defense, betting his processing would let the Rams play more sub-package snaps without a downgrade in run fit alongside Aaron Donald. The fit was immediate. When the Rams traded Kenny Young to Denver mid-season to acquire Von Miller, Jones inherited the MIKE role in Week 8 against Houston, jumped a Davis Mills pass for his first career interception in his first career start, and became a stabilizer during the run to Super Bowl LVI — playing meaningful snaps on the championship defense as a rookie. From 2022 through 2023 he was the Rams' unquestioned defensive signal-caller, producing back-to-back seasons above 140 combined tackles, including a 145-tackle 2023 that led all Los Angeles defenders and pushed him into the tier of most-productive off-ball linebackers in the league.
**Retrospective.** Jones has aged into one of the strongest value picks of the 2021 class outside the top of Round 1. He was traded from the Rams to the Tennessee Titans in August 2024 for a sixth-round pick — a cap-driven move rather than a football referendum — then flipped again at the 2024 trade deadline to the Seattle Seahawks, where he found the scheme fit that unlocked his ceiling. Within a defensive approach, Jones re-signed in the 2025 offseason and became the green-dot centerpiece of a Seattle defense that carried the Seahawks to Super Bowl LX, giving him a second championship ring in five NFL seasons and a first Top 100 selection at #97 for 2026. The pre-draft evaluation of "average tools, elite processing" turned out to be a feature rather than a ceiling — with three-down snaps, film study and durability doing what the forty time could not.