ENGLEWOOD, Colo. \u2014 D.J. Jones finally got his bag.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was a hell of a journey,\u201d he told DNVR.<\/p>\n
The defensive lineman signed a three-year, $30 million contract with the Broncos this offseason, ending a five-year run with San Francisco 49ers. The $9 million signing bonus he took home the day his pen hit the paper was more than the $6 million he made for the rest of his career combined.<\/p>\n
The celebration was simple.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe had dinner at the house,\u201d Jones said. \u201cI\u2019m just a big family guy so we just had a family dinner.\u201d<\/p>\n
The road to the big ocntract wasn\u2019t easy. Jones entered the league as a sixth-round draft pick out of Ole Miss in 2017. The average sixth-round pick is out of the league before the end of his second season, according to the NCAA.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt puts you behind the eight ball,\u201d Jones said.<\/p>\n
Breaking through in San Francisco is even tougher.<\/p>\n
When Jones joined the team, the 49ers had three first-round draft picks on rookie contracts (DeForest Buckner, Arik Armstead and Solomon Thomas) in the defensive line room. They\u2019d just added Earl Mitchell, an experienced lineman, to start at nose tackle. Tank Carradine was a former second-rounder in a contract year.<\/p>\n
And they kept adding talent, too. The 49ers spent two more first-round picks on defensive linemen in Jones\u2019 first three seasons in San Francisco.<\/p>\n
\u201cEvery year they draft a first-rounder, just a high-caliber guy,\u201d Jones said. \u201cIt made me a better player, playing with the caliber of guys that they drafted.\u201d<\/p>\n
One of those picks, the second overall pick in 2019 draft, was used on Nick Bosa. The rookie made his presence felt immediately.<\/p>\n
\u201cI mean, he\u2019s sculpted like a Greek god,\u201d Jones remembers thinking. \u201cHe can\u2019t be too bad.\u201d<\/p>\n
Bosa definitely wasn\u2019t bad. He was named the NFL\u2019s Defensive Rookie of the Year and he\u2019s made two Pro Bowl\u2019s before his 25th birthday. He was also Jones\u2019 lockermate in San Francisco.<\/p>\n
\u201cAll you gotta do is sit back and watch Bosa,\u201d Jones said. \u201cI got to see him every day. Just watching his work ethic and how he approaches his game; master of his craft.\u201d<\/p>\n
Despite the competition, Jones was able to carve out a role in the 49er defense. That role grew every season. By his third year, he was a full-time starter. His four-year, $2.5 million contract expired after his fourth season, and he had a chance to negotiate a deal for himself. <\/p>\n
\u201cI would get on the field and I was so worried about that contract that I wasn\u2019t worried about my opponent,\u201d Jones said. \u201cIt was harmful to my performance.\u201d<\/p>\n
The big deal wasn\u2019t waiting for him at the end of the year. He\u2019d put together a solid performance but didn\u2019t differentiate himself from the other linemen on the market. Instead of leaping to a new team, Jones took another one-year contract in San Francisco because he knew he was capable of more in that system.<\/p>\n
\u201cI figured I have to take all of the emotions out,\u201d Jones said. \u201dDon\u2019t worry about the money. Just play the game that you grew up playing. I took all of the emotions out. I got more in my playbook. I just studied my opponent more and just worried more about my reps. Just make every rep count and don\u2019t worry about the contract.\u201d<\/p>\n
It worked.<\/p>\n
\u201cOf course people will be saying, \u2018D.J., you\u2019re playing yourself into a nice contract.\u2019 I would let that go in one ear and out the other,\u201d Jones said. \u201cI was living outside of that contract. I was playing outside of that contract. I wasn\u2019t worried about the contract.\u201d<\/p>\n
Jones is still in touch with his former teammates in San Francisco often. Playing them on Sunday Night Football this week isn\u2019t going to change that.<\/p>\n
\u201cI love everybody over there, man. We saw it coming,\u201d he said. \u201cI love Kyle Shanahan, John (Lynch). From the owner to the janitors, I love everybody over there, man. Just much respect.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"ENGLEWOOD, Colo. \u2014 D.J. Jones finally got his bag. \u201cIt was a hell of a journey,\u201d he told…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":942509,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2062],"tags":[232,231,258,2426,7,6],"class_list":["post-942508","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-denver-broncos","tag-broncos","tag-denver","tag-denver-broncos","tag-denverbroncos","tag-football","tag-nfl"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nfl\/116900411673454554","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/942508","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=942508"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/942508\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/942509"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=942508"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=942508"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=942508"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}