INDIANAPOLIS — Cayleb Jones is listening to his father’s advice because he wants the same job he held for 10 years.
Robert Jones, who played for the Cowboys, Rams, Dolphins and Redskins from 1992-2001, told his son, the Arizona Wildcats star receiver, to be ready for the NFL Scouting Combine.
“This is a business trip,” Cayleb Jones said Thursday at Lucas Oil Stadium. “You come here to perform. He’s really taught me how to be mentally engaged. It’s just a grind. You have to be into it.
“You gotta understand these coaches are going to grill you — they’re going to pull up the worst plays in your career, and you gotta be able to own up to stuff.”
Here’s a big one: Jones transferred to the UA from Texas before the 2013 season after police said he punched and broke a tennis player’s jaw.
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His 6-foot-3-inch, 209-pound frame and explosiveness since provides a payoff for the team that deems Jones worthy. He was the Wildcats’ leading receiver as a sophomore, catching 73 passes for 1,109 yards and nine touchdowns.
He didn’t make the expected leap as a junior last season — or at least, not until a New Mexico Bowl performance in which he caught four balls for 182 yards and a 78-yard score — but decided to turn pro early anyway.
Because the wide receiver class isn’t quite the bumper crop of the past two seasons, Jones — who caught 55 passes for 904 yards last year — has a chance to climb.
“I’m not saying it’s an awful class,” NFL Network analyst Mike Mayock said. “I think it’s solid. I just don’t think it’s as explosive as the last couple drafts.”
Jones began training at EXOS in Phoenix on Jan. 1.
“I think my style correlates with somebody like Brandon Marshall,” he said of the Jets’ receiver, a Hall of Fame talent who has been traded by all three other teams for whom he’s played. “And I love Brandon Marshall because of everything he’s been through, and the way he’s in the NFL now and everybody loves him. That’s a person I want to be like.
“He went through some stuff; I went through some stuff.”
Ask Jones whom he admires, and he rattles off more pros. He models his game after former teammate Ka’Deem Carey, the Bears’ running back, “because he plays hard.”
He grew up watching the Cowboys’ Michael Irvin and likes the Falcons’ Julio Jones, the Panthers’ Devin Funchess and the Lions’ Calvin Johnson.
He met with Detroit on Wednesday night, and the Lions — who are looking to replace the likely retired “Megatron” — asked him about the Texas incident.
“They wanted to know my history,” he said.
Whether his answer justifies a selection starting in the second round will be up to the NFL’s personnel mavens gathered this week. Jones will run and do on-field drills Saturday.
He’s drawn plays on chalkboards for teams this week and has explained how Rich Rodriguez’s offense correlates to the modern NFL passing attack.
“In Coach Rod’s offense, you have to be very technically sound,” he said. “You have to understand coverages, because a lot of our routes are coverage-adjusted.”
Patrick Finley, a former Star reporter, covers the Chicago Bears for the Chicago Sun-Times. Contact him at patfinley@gmail.com
