Reserve linebacker Joe Jones carves his niche in Bucs preseason lore

TAMPA — Occasionally, the NFL preseason offers smidgens of drama to offset the drudgery. For those toiling in the bowels of a depth chart, a career highlight can be created in an otherwise lackluster Saturday night scrimmage.

Take Jerry Golsteyn. A 12th-round draftee from Northern Illinois, the journeyman quarterback (13 career NFL interceptions, two touchdowns, 42.4-percent completion rate) rallied the Bucs from a 17-0 deficit with 20 fourth-quarter points on his 29th birthday in a 20-17 win against the Saints in the 1983 preseason opener.

As dress-rehearsal immortality goes in these parts, Golsteyn (2-7 as an NFL regular season starter) remains the gold standard. But on Saturday night against Cincinnati, Joe Jones joined him in the local annals of August football supremacy.

A third-teamer on the Bucs’ inside linebacker depth chart, Jones stepped in front of a Kyle Shurmur pass intended for tight end Mason Schreck and returned it for a 15-yard touchdown with 11:52 remaining in the game.

“I have a ton of notifications on my phone — family, friends, Instagram. I’m so pumped,” said Jones, signed as a free agent in May after four nondescript seasons (31 total tackles) in Denver. “First pick ever, first pick-six. I’m so excited.”

Such are the story lines buried beneath the sloppiness, starters’ cameos and general irrelevance of a preseason opener. A long shot for the 53-man roster at a position where the top four on the depth chart (including promising rookie K.J. Britt) appear entrenched, Jones, 27, nonetheless put a splash play on tape during his 34 defensive snaps.

In the process, he further enhanced an unlikely career that included playing with hand fractures as both a high school and college senior.

“That was great,” Bucs coach Bruce Arians said Sunday. “(Shurmur), he didn’t just throw it behind the receiver, he threw it behind Joe. It was a good catch. He’s been struggling with that route in practice, so it was great to see him show up in the game and jump it and get it.”

A married dad of three girls (ages 4 to two months), Jones took up the sport relatively late (eighth grade) at the behest of his mother, Shawn-Daria Dowd. Ultimately, he evolved into the No. 26 high school prospect in Illinois (per 247Sports) for the Class of 2012, earning all-conference honors as a versatile senior running back at Plano High.

Converted to a linebacker at Northwestern, he didn’t crack the starting lineup until his redshirt-senior season, by which time he already had married his high school sweetheart. In 37 career games, he totaled 70 tackles and three sacks, playing most of that final season with a fractured thumb.

During the Wildcats’ bye week that season, wife Amber gave birth to the couple’s first child. On the strength of a sparkling pro day (a 35½-inch vertical leap and 4.45-second effort in the 40-yard dash), Jones joined the Cowboys as an undrafted free agent in 2017. He also logged practice-squad stints with the Chargers and Seahawks that year before hooking up with Denver.

“I would not be playing football, period, or in the NFL if it wasn’t for her,” Jones said of his mom. “She actually forced me to play back in the eighth grade, and it’s obviously turned out well.”

Amber, who just gave birth to Rosalie Jo earlier this summer, planned to be at Raymond James Stadium on Saturday before the threat of Tropical Depression Fred prompted her to reconsider. By kickoff, however, the showers had subsided.

Just enough to let at least one shining moment permeate the clouds.

“With the rain and stuff, she decided she wasn’t going to come,” said Jones, who also tallied three tackles and a pass deflection. “And obviously it doesn’t rain when the ball’s kicked off. I’m super bummed they weren’t here.”

Contact Joey Knight at jknight@tampabay.com. Follow @TBTimes_Bulls.

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