The Washington Commanders have hired former Minnesota Vikings defensive pass game coordinator and defensive backs coach Daronte Jones as their defensive coordinator. Here are five things to know about the Commanders’ newest coach.
1. A unique coaching journey.
Jones told NFL insider Ari Meirov that he “definitely took the long way” in his coaching career. In the past 26 years, Jones has coached at nearly every level spanning across multiple leagues, from high school and college to the CFL and NFL.
Jones started his coaching career in 2001 as a graduate assistant at Lenoir-Rhyne — a Division II school in North Carolina. He then went from Nicholls State to Franklin High School in Louisiana, where he got his first shot at being a defensive coordinator. From there, he got a coordinator job at Jeanerette High School and then Bowie State for five seasons. That led to him coaching at UCLA and then the Montreal Alouettes and then Hawaii for two seasons. A brief stay at Wisconsin preceded a two-year stint as the Miami Dolphins’ assistant defensive backs coach.
Since 2016, Jones has spent most of his time at the professional level. His one season as LSU’s defensive coordinator was sandwiched between stints with the Cincinnati Bengals and Vikings. He returned to the Vikings’ coaching staff in 2022 and was promoted to the team’s pass game coordinator in 2023.
So, while there might be coaches out there with more years of experience, there aren’t many who can say they’ve coached at the high school, Division I, Division II, Division III, CFL and NFL levels.