Don Jones II (born May 14, 1990) is a former

American football American football (referred to simply as football in the United States and Canada), also known as gridiron, is a team sport played by two teams of eleven players on a rectangular field with goalposts at each end. The offense, the team wi ...

free safety. He played college football at

Arkansas State Arkansas ( ) is a landlocked state in the South Central United States. It is bordered by Missouri to the north, Tennessee and Mississippi to the east, Louisiana to the south, and Texas and Oklahoma to the west. Its name is from the Osage ...

Early years

Played running back and defensive back for the Hazlewood Golden Bears in Town Creek, Alabama, coached by Aaron Goode. He starred as a guard on the basketball team, coached by Shane Childress. As a senior, Jones won the Class 1A 100 meters, 200 meters and 400 meters in track.
Jones ran for 1,869 yards and 22 touchdowns his senior year and had scholarship offers from 10 Division I schools. In July 2007, before his senior year, Jones was timed at 4.38 in a 40-yard dash at the

Alabama-Birmingham The University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB) is a public research university in Birmingham, Alabama. Developed from an academic extension center established in 1936, the institution became a four-year campus in 1966 and a fully autonomous univ ...

football camp.
Hazlewood High School also has produced former NFL players

Antonio Langham Collie Antonio Langham (born July 31, 1972) is an American former college and professional football player who was a cornerback in the National Football League (NFL) for seven seasons. He played college football for the University of Alabama, a ...

, Kerry Goode, Chris Goode,

Kalvin Pearson Kalvin Pearson (born October 22, 1978) is a former American football safety. He was signed by the Cleveland Browns as an undrafted free agent in 2002. He played college football at Grambling. Early years Pearson attended Hazlewood High School in ...

, Joe Manley, and

Bob Penchion Robert Earl Penchion (born August 11, 1949) is a former professional American football player who played in five National Football League (NFL) seasons from 1972 to 1976 for the Buffalo Bills, San Francisco 49ers and Seattle Seahawks. He played co ...

College career

He played college football for the

Arkansas State Red Wolves The Arkansas State Red Wolves are the athletic teams of Arkansas State University. They are a member of the Sun Belt Conference in all sports except women's bowling, a sport not sponsored by that league, competing at the National Collegiate Athleti ...

, where he started as a running back for head coach Steve Roberts. While with the Red Wolves, Jones rushed for 149 yards and two touchdowns on 24 attempts and had 12 catches for 146 yards and a score as a freshman in 2009.
He then transferred to

Mississippi Gulf Coast Community College Mississippi Gulf Coast Community College (MGCCC) is a public community college with its main campus in Perkinston, Mississippi. It was founded as Harrison County Agricultural High School in 1912. MGCCC has three campuses and six centers: The ma ...

, where he played safety. He then returned to Arkansas State in 2011, where he moved to defensive back and linebacker.

Professional career

Miami Dolphins

Jones was selected in the seventh round (250th overall) by the

Miami Dolphins The Miami Dolphins are a professional American football team based in the Miami metropolitan area. They compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member team of the league's American Football Conference (AFC) East division. The team p ...

. His NFL.com draft profile grade was 50.2 Don Jones made a game-changing play for the Dolphins on September 22, 2013, against the Atlanta Falcons in the Dolphins' first home game of the season. Covering a punt on special teams, Jones forced a fumble when he hit punt returner

Harry Douglas Harry Douglas IV (born September 16, 1984) is a former American football wide receiver who played in the National Football League (NFL) for ten seasons. He played college football at Louisville. Douglas was drafted by the Atlanta Falcons in ...

with 1:48 left in the third quarter. The Dolphins, trailing at the time 20-13, recovered the loose ball and scored a touchdown on the ensuing drive and went on to win 27-23. The victory improved the Dolphins' record to 3-0. He played on the special teams in all 16 regular-season games for the Dolphins, who finished 8-8 and missed the playoffs. On December 24, 2013, Jones was named to the Professional Football Writers Association's All-Rookie Team as the kick gunner on special teams. On

Twitter Twitter is an online social media and social networking service owned and operated by American company Twitter, Inc., on which users post and interact with 280-character-long messages known as "tweets". Registered users can post, like, and ...

, Jones wrote "Horrible" and "OMG" shortly after the drafting of

Michael Sam Michael Alan Sam Jr. (born January 7, 1990) is an American professional football defensive lineman for the Barcelona Dragons in the European League of Football. A defensive end, Sam played college football for the Missouri Tigers and was d ...

by the

St. Louis Rams The St. Louis Rams were a professional American football team of the National Football League (NFL). They played in St. Louis from 1995 to the 2015 season, before moving back to Los Angeles, where the team had played from 1946 to 1994. The arr ...

and was promptly fined by the Dolphins and suspended from team activities. He was required to undergo educational training before he can return to the team. Jones was reinstated on May 19, 2014 after completing the training. Jones was waived by the Dolphins on August 31, 2014.

New England Patriots

The New England Patriots claimed Jones off waivers on September 1, 2014. He was cut on

Thanksgiving Thanksgiving is a national holiday celebrated on various dates in the United States, Canada, Grenada, Saint Lucia, Liberia, and unofficially in countries like Brazil and Philippines. It is also observed in the Netherlander town of Leiden ...

(November 27).

Second stint with the Miami Dolphins

Jones signed with the

on November 28, 2014.

New Orleans Saints

Jones was signed to the

New Orleans Saints The New Orleans Saints are a professional American football team based in New Orleans. The Saints compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member of the league's National Football Conference (NFC) South division. Since 1975, the te ...

practice squad on September 7, 2015, and was promoted to the active roster five days later. After appearing in five games on special teams, he was waived on October 13.

Cleveland Browns

Jones was claimed off waivers by the

Cleveland Browns The Cleveland Browns are a professional American football team based in Cleveland. Named after original coach and co-founder Paul Brown, they compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member club of the American Football Conference (A ...

on October 14, 2015. On March 17, 2016, Jones signed a one-year contract with the

worth $1,671,000. He was released on October 4, 2016.

Houston Texans

On October 19, 2016, Jones was signed by the Houston Texans.

San Francisco 49ers

On March 10, 2017, Jones signed a two-year contract with the

San Francisco 49ers The San Francisco 49ers (also written as the San Francisco Forty-Niners) are a professional American football team based in the San Francisco Bay Area. The 49ers compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member of the league's National ...

. He was placed on injured reserve on September 2, 2017 after suffering an ACL injury. On July 25, 2018, Jones was waived by the 49ers.

Personal life

In April 2018, Jones returned to Lawrence County, Alabama, to escort a special needs student to her senior prom.

References

External links

Arkansas State bio
* {{DEFAULTSORT:Jones, Don 1990 births American football safeties Arkansas State Red Wolves football players Cleveland Browns players Houston Texans players Living people Miami Dolphins players Mississippi Gulf Coast Bulldogs football players New England Patriots players New Orleans Saints players People from Town Creek, Alabama Players of American football from Alabama San Francisco 49ers players