Kliff Kingsbury Surprised by Josh Jones' Draft Slide: 'Did He Kill Somebody?'

Josh Jones was ranked one of the top offensive tackles ahead of the 2020 NFL draft, slotting in just behind Jedrick Wills Jr., Tristan Wirfs, Andrew Thomas and Mekhi Becton on plenty of mock boards.

Yet those four all went in the first round, while Jones slid to the third. It was a confounding development that even had the Arizona Cardinals executives who eventually drafted him scratching their heads. 

Finally, Arizona head coach Kliff Kingsbury reached out to Jones' coaches at the University of Houston to see what the deal was. 

"We're calling saying, 'What's going on? Did he kill somebody last night? Is there something we don't know about? What's the issue?'" Kingsbury told the 98.7 FM Bickley & Marotta show. "They were kind of scratching their heads as well."

After ranking him a top-30 player on the team's internal board, the Cardinals grabbed Jones at No. 72 overall.

Equally as perplexed by the slide was Jones himself. The tackle had a solid performance at the NFL Scouting Combine and was rated as someone who could become a front-line starter within two years. NFL analyst Lance Zierlein even compared him to Bobby Massie, who has started 102 of the 110 games he's appeared in since entering the league eight years ago as a fourth-rounder. 

Given the high marks he received, it was stunning for Jones to watch as teams kept passing on him.

"It's still inside me," Jones told Kyle Odegard of AZCardinals.com. "I'm driven by it. That was a tough day for me."

That doesn't mean Jones didn't land in a near-perfect situation. Not only will the 6'5", 319-pound Texas native join a young, dynamic offense that looks to challenge for a championship in the near future, the scheme he'll be playing in will look a lot like what he used in college: 

"After the draft I talked to my O-line coach and he said our system is pretty much the same. Some of the same calls, some of the same runs and passes, so he was preparing me for that, letting me know it's kind of similar, and I shouldn't have too much of a learning curve. I know they're pretty tight, coming from under the same tree, so I was happy getting over here with coach Kliff."

His new coach seemingly feels the same way. After studying up on Jones' film, there were a number of areas that captivated the offensive-minded Kingsbury.

"It appeared as if he had a consistent plan each and every snap this year," Kingsbury said. "He was locked in. There was no lack of focus, and it paid off. There was nobody that was getting around him the entire season, so you definitely saw big strides there on the technical side of things."

Jones won't be able to outrun the narrative of his draft-day slide. Yet how it'll be remembered is undecided. The offensive tackle can still control that part of the story. It may end up a cautionary tale for the rest of the league.