Benito Jones: "(Draft) just put a little chip on my shoulder"
Benito Jones is a Miami Dolphin. Going undrafted and signing with Miami as a free agent, the last few days may not have gone the way he always dreamed. But Jones is still getting his shot in the National Football League.
A kid that grew up in Waynesboro, Miss. and went to school at Ole Miss is headed to South Beach.
"I'm excited to get down there. It'll be a little different change from being in Mississippi all of my life," Jones joked on Sunday morning. "It's a good feeling. It's a dream, I'm finally on an NFL team. That was my whole goal, just to get to a ball club."
Jones is yet to talk to head coach Brian Flores, but spent some time on the phone yesterday afternoon with defensive coordinator Josh Boyer and defensive line coach Marion Hobby.
The Dolphins, who run a similar 3-4 scheme to what Ole Miss ran a year ago under Mike MacIntyre, will have Jones play mostly a nose tackle role, but may have him try and shade off the guard as a 3-technique as well.
For Jones, he'll play anywhere he can to get a shot at making the active roster.
As for the last few days, they're just going to give him extra motivation in Miami. Jones never expected his name to be called on night one of the NFL Draft in the first round. But he wasn't expecting his slide to undrafted status either.
"The first day, I wasn't really looking for my name to get called. But second and third day? Yeah, I was totally into it and looking for my name to be called, but it didn't," Jones said. "That just put a little chip on my shoulder, but God's got other plans for me. So we'll just see where it goes from here."
Eventually, he still landed in the NFL. Literally minutes following the conclusion of the draft, NFL Network's Ian Rapaport had announced that Jones was going to Miami.
He was disappointed, but his parents and his agents never let it get to him.
"(They told me to) just keep waiting on your phone call, be patient," Jones said. "I didn't get mad or frustrated about it. My name wasn't called, no big deal. Miami called me and asked me to do a free agent deal. I was excited about that and I jumped on it."
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