Atlanta Falcons: Deion Jones to be mentor to Duke Riley

Atlanta Falcons rookie Duke Riley can look up to his former LSU teammate Deion Jones as the two are together again, trying to become part of a great defense

Their stories leading to the NFL are pretty similar for the Atlanta Falcons young linebackers. Both Deion Jones and Duke Riley were backups for three seasons at LSU until getting their shot to shine. For Jones, that chance came in 2015 and led to him being selected 52nd overall in the second round of the 2016 NFL Draft. Once he was in the pros, Riley was able to shine for LSU and wound up being taken in the third round at number 75 overall in 2017.

Once again teammates, the two are looking to help one another become even better moving forward. To make sure that’s the case, the second-year Jones has been assigned the mentor role to the rookie Riley according to D. Orlando Ledbetter of the Atlanta Journal-Constitutional who was there for the media session for the Falcons players.

While a sophomore isn’t usually known as a teacher, Jones is no ordinary young player. He was a leader for the Falcons defense and recorded 108 tackles, three interceptions and scored two touchdowns as a rookie. He was named to the Pro Football Writer’s of America All-Rookie team and is set to be the signal-caller for the much improved Falcons defense.

More things learned during the session were that Jones is weighing it at roughly 230-pounds at the moment, and the team would like him to be closer to 235. He was less than 230-last season but there could be concern going forward given the amount of hits he will deliver.

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Jones also takes the role of signal-caller very serious and feels he has to step up with veterans like Paul Worrilow and Sean Weatherspoon now gone.