Malachi Fitzgerald Jones (born March 22, 1994) is an American

gridiron football Gridiron football,"Gridiron football"
''Encyclopædia Britannica''. Ret ...

wide receiver who is currently a free agent. He played

college football College football (french: Football universitaire) refers to gridiron football played by teams of student athletes. It was through college football play that American football rules first gained popularity in the United States. Unlike most ...

Appalachian State Appalachian State University (; Appalachian, App State, App, or ASU) is a public university in Boone, North Carolina. It was founded as a teachers college in 1899 by brothers B. B. and D. D. Dougherty and the latter's wife, Lillie Shull Dough ...

Early life

Jones attended Central Gwinnett High School in Lawrenceville, Georgia. Rated a two-star prospect by Rivals.com & a three-star by Scout.com. Led Gwinnett County with 82 receptions, 1,059 receiving yards, 14 touchdowns & 12.9 yards per catch in 2011. Received second-team all-state and first-team all-county recognition in 2011. Participated in the 2010 RisingSeniors.com Georgia Junior Bowl. Broke school and county records for receptions (15) & receiving yards (276) in a game & receptions in a season (82). Coached by Todd Wofford. Jones committed to

Appalachian State University Appalachian State University (; Appalachian, App State, App, or ASU) is a public university in Boone, North Carolina. It was founded as a teachers college in 1899 by brothers B. B. and D. D. Dougherty and the latter's wife, Lillie Shull Dough ...

on January 22, 2012. Jones chose Appalachian State over football scholarships from

Chattanooga Chattanooga ( ) is a city in and the county seat of Hamilton County, Tennessee, United States. Located along the Tennessee River bordering Georgia, it also extends into Marion County on its western end. With a population of 181,099 in 2020, ...

, Georgia Southern,

Louisiana–Monroe The University of Louisiana Monroe (ULM) is a public university in Monroe, Louisiana. It is part of the University of Louisiana System. History ULM opened in 1931 as Ouachita Parish Junior College. Three years later it became the Northeast Ce ...

& Presbyterian.

College career

Jones played four seasons for the Appalachian State Mountaineers of

. Jones caught 124 passes for 1,711 yards and eight touchdowns in four seasons at Appalachian State. Appeared in all 49 games during his Mountaineer career and made 35 starts at wide receiver. Earned Freshman All-America recognition from College Sports Journal & named to Southern Conference’s All-Freshman team in 2012.

College statistics

Source:

Professional career

Jones was rated the 83rd best wide receiver in the

2016 NFL Draft The 2016 NFL Draft was the 81st annual meeting of National Football League (NFL) franchises to select newly eligible American football players. As in 2015, the draft took place at the Auditorium Theatre and Grant Park in Chicago. The draft beg ...

by NFLDraftScout.com.

Atlanta Falcons

Jones signed a free agent deal with the

Atlanta Falcons The Atlanta Falcons are a professional American football team based in Atlanta. The Falcons compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member club of the league's National Football Conference (NFC) South division. The Falcons joined th ...

of the National Football League (NFL) following the 2016 NFL Draft, but was waived after rookie mini camp.

High Country Grizzlies

Jones signed with the High Country Grizzlies of the National Arena League (NAL). Jones caught 66 passes for 685 yards and 16 touchdowns in 10 games, and was awarded the 2017 National Arena League Offensive Rookie of the Year.

Atlanta Havoc

For 2018, Jones signed with the Atlanta Havoc (now the Carolina Havoc) of the newly formed American Arena League, but departed after one game to join the AFL.

Albany Empire

Jones was assigned to the Albany Empire of the Arena Football League (AFL) for 2018. In 12 regular season games, Jones had 77 receptions for 1,156 yards and 29 touchdowns along with 5 rushing touchdowns. Jones scored at least once in every game played, and passed the 100 yards receiving mark in a game on four occasions during the regular season. He won the 2018

Arena Football League Rookie of the Year Award The Arena Football League The Arena Football League (AFL) was a professional arena football league in the United States. It was founded in 1986, but played its first official games in the 1987 season, making it the third longest-running profess ...

and Wide Receiver of the Year, becoming the only rookie in league history to win both awards in the same season. Jones was also recognized with First-team All Arena honors for 2018. For the postseason, Albany played in two playoff games, where Jones surpassed the century mark in each of these, and caught 7 more touchdowns. Jones left his day job in marketing to play in the AFL.

Chicago Bears

On July 26, 2018, Jones signed with the

Chicago Bears The Chicago Bears are a professional American football team based in Chicago. The Bears compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member club of the league's National Football Conference (NFC) North division. The Bears have won nine NF ...

. He was waived on September 1, 2018.

Atlanta Legends

In October 2018, Jones signed with the

Atlanta Legends The Atlanta Legends were a professional American football franchise based in Atlanta, Georgia, and one of the eight members of the Alliance of American Football (AAF), which played one season from February 2019 to April 2019. They played their h ...

of the

Alliance of American Football The Alliance of American Football (AAF) was a professional American football minor league. The AAF consisted of eight centrally owned and operated teams in the southern and western United States, seven of which were located in metropolitan are ...

(AAF). Jones finished the 2019 season with 22 receptions for 312 yards and 2 touchdowns through 8 games. This was good enough to be ranked 10th in AAF's receiving yards and tied for 6th in touchdown catches. Jones also had two carries for 16 yards.

Second stint with Empire

After the AAF suspended football operations, Jones re-signed with the Albany Empire of the AFL on April 10, 2019. For the first game of the year, Jones contributed to the win with 11 catches for 94 yards and a score. After recording back to back games with over 100 receiving yards and 2 touchdowns, Jones was suspended so that he could work out with the Tennessee Titans of the NFL. Jones did not miss a game, having been reinstated in time for a 10 catch, 179 yard and 3 touchdown performance in week 4 to keep Albany undefeated. It was not until Jones' streak of 5 games with 100 yards receiving was broken that the Empire had their first loss of the season. In 12 regular season games, Jones had 9 games with at least 100 yards receiving, and continued his streak of scoring at least once in every game of the regular season. He finished with 1,440 yards and 25 touchdown catches; Jones was the only AFL receiver with at least 1,000 yards in 2019, a year which culminated in Jones and the Empire winning

ArenaBowl XXXII ArenaBowl XXXII was 32nd and final ArenaBowl and the championship game of the 2019 Arena Football League season. The game took place on August 11, 2019, with kickoff at 8:00 p.m. EDT on ESPN2. It featured the winners of the two semifinals, the N ...

Montreal Alouettes

In October 2019, Jones was selected in the 10th round (74th overall) by the Seattle Dragons in the Skills Portion of the

2020 XFL Draft The 2020 XFL Draft was the inaugural player selection process to fill the rosters of the eight teams of the 2020 reboot of the XFL. The draft was held on October 15–16, 2019, via conference call, with results released through the XFL's social m ...

. Jones did not sign with the XFL, and instead signed a two-year contract with the Montreal Alouettes of the Canadian Football League on December 4, 2019. He was placed on the retired list by the team on June 22, 2021, after receiving a job offer from Lululemon.

Third stint with Empire

Jones signed with the relaunched Albany Empire of the National Arena League on June 17, 2021.

Carolina Cobras

On July 14, 2022, Jones signed with the Carolina Cobras of the National Arena League (NAL).

Career statistics

National Arena League

Arena Football League

Playoffs

Alliance of American Football

Personal life

His father, Andre Jones, was a starting defensive end on the

1988 Notre Dame Fighting Irish football team The 1988 Notre Dame Fighting Irish football team represented the University of Notre Dame during the 1988 NCAA Division I-A football season. The Irish, coached by Lou Holtz, ended the season with 12 wins and no losses, winning the national champ ...

. He was drafted in the 7th round of the 1991 NFL Draft by the

Pittsburgh Steelers The Pittsburgh Steelers are a professional American football team based in Pittsburgh. The Steelers compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member club of the American Football Conference (AFC) North division. Founded in , the Steel ...

. He also played for the

Detroit Lions The Detroit Lions are a professional American football team based in Detroit. The Lions compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member of the National Football Conference (NFC) North Division. The team play their home games at Ford ...

and the Winnipeg Blue Bombers of the Canadian Football League (CFL). His older brother, T. J. Jones, a former Notre Dame football player, was drafted by the

during the

2014 NFL Draft The 2014 NFL draft was the 79th annual meeting of National Football League (NFL) franchises to select newly eligible football players to the league. The draft, officially the "Player Selection Meeting", was held at Radio City Music Hall in New Y ...

. His other younger brother,

Jahmai Jones This list contains tribes or other groups of people named in the Bible of minor notability, about whom either nothing or very little is known, aside from any family connections. A Accaba, descendants of For the descendants of "Accaba" (1 Esd ...

, who was drafted by the Angels as the 70th overall pick in the 2nd round of the

2015 MLB Draft Fifteen or 15 may refer to: *15 (number), the natural number following 14 and preceding 16 *one of the years 15 BC, AD 15, 1915, 2015 Music * Fifteen (band), a punk rock band Albums * ''15'' (Buckcherry album), 2005 * ''15'' (Ani Lorak albu ...

,Angels select Georgia HS OF Jahmai Jones with 2nd-round pick in draft
/ref> played for the Los Angeles Angels of Major League Baseball (MLB). Jones’s godfather, Raghib "Rocket" Ismail, finished second in voting for the 1990

Heisman Trophy The Heisman Memorial Trophy (usually known colloquially as the Heisman Trophy or The Heisman) is awarded annually to the most outstanding player in college football. Winners epitomize great ability combined with diligence, perseverance, and hard ...

Notre Dame Notre Dame, French for "Our Lady", a title of Mary, mother of Jesus, most commonly refers to: * Notre-Dame de Paris, a cathedral in Paris, France * University of Notre Dame, a university in Indiana, United States ** Notre Dame Fighting Irish, th ...

and recorded over 5,000 receiving yards in nine NFL seasons.

References

External links

Appalachian State Mountaineers bio
{{DEFAULTSORT:Jones, Malachi 1994 births Living people African-American players of American football African-American players of Canadian football Albany Empire (AFL) players American expatriate sportspeople in Canada American football wide receivers American players of Canadian football Appalachian State Mountaineers football players Atlanta Legends players Canadian football wide receivers Chicago Bears players High Country Grizzlies players Montreal Alouettes players People from Lawrenceville, Georgia Players of American football from Georgia (U.S. state) Sportspeople from the Atlanta metropolitan area 21st-century African-American sportspeople