Brandon
Jones.
Brandon
Jones.
Texas· 5'11"· 198 lb
"A Texas captain who played free safety, the box and the slot in the same season and whose head coach called him the best open-field tackler he had ever coached, with coverage the one unanswered question."Pre-draft read
Jones is a downhill, position-flexible safety whose best football happens moving toward the line of scrimmage. He diagnoses run keys quickly, fills the alley with real force for a 191-pound player and tackles reliably in the open field, the trait his college staff singled out above every other.
The versatility is what makes him more than a box body. Texas lined him up at free safety, in the box and in the slot in the same game, and he was comfortable in all three, adding value as a blitzer. Coverage is the gap: he matches tight ends and backs better than slot receivers, and his deep-third work is closing speed rather than anticipation. He is a defender who plays the ball carrier better than he plays the route.
Multiple defense with a two-high shell that lets one safety rotate into the box, where his run fits and blitz timing become the pressure package.
Year 1 sub-package box safety and core special teamer, with a ceiling as a full-time starting strong safety who leads a defense in tackles.
A single-high role that parks him in the deep middle every snap and asks him to carry vertical routes alone, which turns his best traits into spectators.
Brandon Jones 2019 Texas Highlights
Senior-season cutup, the best look at the downhill trigger and open-field tackling that defined him.
The Best Returning Safety In The Country: Texas S Brandon Jones
Pre-senior-year reel showing the positional versatility across free safety, box and slot alignments.
Brandon Jones, S Texas: 2020 NFL Draft Profile
Draft-cycle breakdown pairing the tape with the coverage questions that followed him into the league.
Jones arrived at Texas as a highly recruited safety and played immediately, appearing in all 12 games as a true freshman in 2016 before becoming a fixture. He produced 61 tackles as a sophomore, 70 with two interceptions in ten games as a junior, and a career-best 86 tackles with two more interceptions, four passes defended and a sack as a senior. He finished with 232 tackles, 15 tackles for loss, four interceptions and seven passes defended across 47 games, and he was a team captain.
The film was about versatility and contact. Pro Football Focus had him splitting 2019 between the slot, free safety and the box, and Tom Herman called him the best open-field tackler he had ever coached. He also contributed on every special teams unit, with blocked punts and a return touchdown on the resume, which mattered for a projection that was never going to be about man coverage.
The pre-draft process was compromised. Jones was recovering from a shoulder injury and could not test fully, so he spent the spring studying film of all 32 defenses instead. Teams were evaluating a tough, smart, positionally flexible safety with real special teams value and coverage questions that would follow him. Miami took him at the end of the third round to be the physical piece in a rebuilt secondary.
- 01
Open-field tackling
His college head coach called him the best open-field tackler he had ever coached, and the tape supports it on both runs and screens.
- 02
Positional versatility
Logged meaningful snaps at free safety, in the box and in the slot in the same season, letting a defense disguise without substituting.
- 03
Downhill trigger
Diagnoses run action fast and fills the alley with force that his listed weight does not suggest, arriving before the back gets started.
- 04
Blitz value
Effective as a nickel and edge pressure player, with the timing and burst to turn a delayed rush into a negative play.
- 05
Special teams resume
Played on every unit at Texas with blocked punts and a return touchdown, which guarantees a roster role from day one.
- 01
Man coverage
Struggles to mirror quick slot receivers through breaks, and gives up separation when asked to travel with a route rather than read it.
- 02
Deep-zone anticipation
Covers ground with speed rather than early recognition, which leaves him arriving late on throws to the boundary from the middle.
- 03
Play strength
At 191 pounds he can be moved by tight ends and pulling linemen on the edge of the box, where he wants to live.
- 04
Incomplete testing
A shoulder injury kept him from a full pre-draft workout, leaving athletic testing questions unanswered at a position that is tested hard.
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.
— No athletic data recorded
| Yr | Team | G | Tkl | Sk | Int | PD | FF |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2016 | Texas | 12 | 15 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| 2017 | Texas | 12 | 61 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 1 |
| 2018 | Texas | 10 | 70 | 0 | 2 | 1 | 0 |
| 2019 | Texas | 13 | 86 | 1 | 2 | 4 | 1 |
| Career | — | 47 | 232 | 1 | 4 | 7 | 2 |
Season lines sum exactly to the career totals of 232 tackles, 15 tackles for loss, four interceptions and seven passes defended across 47 games. His NFL team bio lists 233 tackles and 11 passes defensed for the same career, a difference that comes from how pass breakups and shared tackles are credited.
A dash means the figure is not published by a source we trust — never a zero we invented.
Versatile box-leaning safety who starts, fills the stat sheet and gets protected from isolated coverage duty.
The ceiling version, where an undersized, fast, violent safety becomes the tackling engine and emotional center of a defense.
The injury-shortened version, where a productive starter cannot stay on the field long enough to build a consistent career.
Everything above is the pre-draft evaluation. This section is what actually happened — updated year over year.
Miami used him exactly as advertised, then someone else got the best version. Jones played all 16 games as a rookie in 2020 with four starts and 62 tackles, then took over a bigger role in 2021 with 13 starts, 79 tackles and a career-high five sacks as a blitzer. A knee injury ended his 2022 season after seven starts, and he returned in 2023 in a reduced role with six starts and two interceptions. Denver signed him in 2024 and he immediately became a full-time starter, leading the Broncos with 115 tackles and posting three interceptions, then following with 78 tackles, seven passes defensed and an interception in 14 games in 2025. He opened 2026 as a Denver starter. Through seven seasons he has roughly 441 tackles, eight interceptions, 8.5 sacks and 27 passes defended in 86 games with 60 starts.
In hindsight this is a clear hit at the bottom of the third round. Jones became a full-time NFL starter and a defensive centerpiece in Denver, and the traits that got him drafted, tackling, versatility and blitz value, are exactly the ones that made him valuable. The coverage limitations never fully disappeared, but a defense that used him near the line rather than in the deep middle got a seven-year starter out of pick 70.
Data note: Imported from Wikipedia 2020 NFL draft player selections table.