‘He immediately stepped on the field for us’

When Adam Bighill went down with a season-ending knee injury in Week 13 last season, a cloud of uncertainty loomed over the Winnipeg Blue Bombers about who would replace the pillar in the middle of their defence.

The answer was in a relatively unknown commodity, Tony Jones, who had suited up in just five games at weak-side linebacker at the time.

Jones was still picking up the pieces of a shattered confidence from earlier in the season when he was cut unexpectedly by the Edmonton Elks. The Bombers scooped up the castoff in Week 2, signed him to the practice squad and an acquisition that had gone overlooked was suddenly the glue in a defence with championship aspirations.

“He immediately stepped on the field for us,” head coach Mike O’Shea said of Jones, who performed admirably for the No. 1 scoring defence the rest of the season. “He’s been very good for us.”

This season, Jones has elevated his play to match the best second-level patrols in the Canadian Football League. The 29-year-old, who was brought back on a two-year deal to permanently replace Bighill, is diagnosing plays at a high level and showcasing elite sideline-to-sideline pursuit ability on every down.

Jones feels like he’s playing the best football of his career.

“Yes, in a sense, for sure. When you come into this league, as a first-year guy or second-year guy, you’re still kind of learning the ropes and learning how things go on in this league, but once you get your foot in the door, going on year three and year four, you got a good glimpse of how the game’s being played and everything about situational football,” said Jones, whose 27 defensive tackles leads the Bombers.

“In a sense, I feel like I’m in the system now. When I was coming in last year, I was coming more into the learning phase, learning the new things and the system of how these coaches want things done. So I feel like I’ve been playing well, but this last game, I feel like, as a team, we weren’t ourselves. So I feel like there’s always room for improvement.”

Jones’s tackle total works out to 6.8 per outing through four contests, which ranks third among all CFL players. He also has one sack.

“Much more confident,” said defensive co-ordinator Jordan Younger. “He didn’t have the benefit of being in training camp (last year) and learning the system from the ground up. Seeing him learn it from the foundation, and taking it and running with it, he’s still growing in the system, but, yeah, it’s all positive.”

Confidence within the system has translated to faster play for the fourth-year pro. Younger called Jones’s game “clean” and credited how he pursues the ball. A relentless effort has led to plays that don’t make the box score and created opportunities for teammates to make tackles.

Pro Football Focus, an analytics company that tracks every player in the CFL, graded Jones with a 77.5 in run defence through four games, which is the fifth-highest among all linebackers.

“He’s a physical player. He’s a hustler, he’s a go-getter, man,” said running mate Kyrie Wilson. “He doesn’t take no plays off, he’s always around the ball, always trying to go out there and make plays and do the best he can for the team.

“He’s a good player, very good awareness. He sees things quickly and is ready to react quickly, too. So that’s the biggest thing, too, man, and he’s not nervous or anything, he’s just going out there with confidence and playing ball.”

All important traits to have in a league that sees many plays naturally flow to the middle linebacker. Bighill possessed each of those qualities as he dominated for six years in Blue and Gold, and now the emergence of Jones has prevented a drop-off at one of the most important positions on the field.

“It’s changed a lot since my day, but some of the things you need to do in terms of communication, I mean, you’re in the centre of it, right? So you get an opportunity to get to a lot of plays,” said O’Shea.

“Tony gets to a lot of plays, Kyrie gets to a lot of plays, just because they’re wired to run. They don’t have that pause between a play happening, going away from them and then thinking about what’s next. They have this innate ability to move immediately towards the ball, so they cover a lot of ground, they cover it quickly, and they’re both really good playmakers.”

In many ways, getting cut from the Elks was one of the best things that happened to Jones. He recalled being shaken after receiving the news and worried about where he would play next. He remembered his agent informing him that he had several interested teams in his services, and the Bombers sticking out to him.

So when the club rewarded him in the off-season with a two-year deal and the unofficial title as the team’s new starting middle linebacker, there was no thought from him to coast. Instead, he felt like he had more to prove.

“With that label, it just made me want to work harder. Getting that two-year deal just made me want to push myself and show myself and everyone that it was the right decision,” he said.

“I come in every day as if I’m the guy going forward, as well, so I just try to do my part. And just the little things: doing everything right, communicating and putting in the extra work and, in a sense, showing the younger guys how it’s done.”

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For as well as Jones is playing, he assured that there’s room to grow. And despite the comfort that comes with being an unquestioned starter with a multi-year contract, he still feels the pressure of performing every day, much like he did when he first arrived in Winnipeg.

“Out here, it’s a numbers game. So it’s just me pushing myself to show up every day and just be the best I can be, to help everyone around me, help myself, and just go out there and put it on tape,” Jones said.

“There’s so many little things that you can always clean up. Always anticipation, just putting yourself in a better alignment and better position to make the plays, and then when the plays come to you, make them.”

joshua.frey-sam@freepress.mb.ca

X: @jfreysam

Joshua Frey-Sam
Reporter

Josh Frey-Sam reports on sports and business at the Free Press. Josh got his start at the paper in 2022, just weeks after graduating from the Creative Communications program at Red River College. He reports primarily on amateur teams and athletes in sports. Read more about Josh.

Every piece of reporting Josh produces is reviewed by an editing team before it is posted online or published in print — part of the Free Press‘s tradition, since 1872, of producing reliable independent journalism. Read more about Free Press’s history and mandate, and learn how our newsroom operates.