Lions ink second first-round pick Jones

Updated: July 28, 2004, 3:30 PM ET

Email Print Share

By Len Pasquarelli
ESPN.com
Archive

Former Virginia Tech star Kevin Jones, the youngster who will try to put the fangs back in a Detroit Lions running game that has mostly struggled since the retirement of Barry Sanders in 1999, reached agreement on his first NFL contract.

Jones is the latter of the Lions' two first-round choices of this year's draft, the 30th player chosen overall, and the third running back to go off the board. The Lions have yet to reach agreement with the earlier of their first-round selections, wide receiver Roy Williams of Texas, the seventh overall prospect chosen.

It is expected that Jones will sign a six-year contract that, assuming he reaches certain predetermined playing time levels, will void to a five-year deal. The five-year value of the contract, exclusive of escalators, is about $7 million and the guaranteed portion of the deal is approximately $3.625 million.

Since the stunning departure of Sanders on the eve of training camp in '99, Detroit has never ranked statistically higher than 16th in the NFL in rushing offense, and the Lions were last in the NFL in 2003, averaging just 83.6 yards per game. The team's leading rusher, Shawn Bryson, ran for only 606 yards.

General manager Matt Millen and coach Steve Mariucci hope that Jones, who averaged 5.6 yards per carry at Virginia Tech, will boost those anemic numbers.

The son of a former All-American high school basketball player, Jones has very strong bloodlines and is a natural athlete. Despite forgoing his final season of eligibility, he ran for 3,475 yards and 35 touchdowns on 616 career attempts. In 2003, Jones rushed 281 times for 1,647 yards and 21 touchdowns. He appeared in 37 games in his three seasons with the Hokies and started 16 contests.

Acquiring the speedy Jones was part of the organization's plan to surround third-year quarterback Joey Harrington with an upgraded offensive arsenal.

Although his workout times in the 40-yard dash were relatively pedestrian, Jones has terrific competitive speed and, once he gets into the secondary, is rarely caught from behind. One criticism of Jones, who finished second on the Virginia Tech career list in both rushing and rushing touchdowns, is that he does not make his own hole. Some scouts feel he goes down too easily on initial contact.

Also Wednesday, Detroit signed second-round pick Teddy Lehman, who earlier had agreed to terms with the team, to a four-year deal.

Lehman, a 6-foot-2, 238 pounder, won the 2003 Butkus Award as college football's top linebacker and the Chuck Bednarik Award as the nation's best defensive player.

Len Pasquarelli is a senior writer for ESPN.com. Information from The Associated Press also was included in this report.