Maxx Crosby is the undisputed leader of the Raiders locker room and, without question, the most valuable player on the roster. He was voted the 10th-best player in the NFL by his peers and no one in the league works harder than Crosby.
All that being said, it sounds like the Raiders have another superstar that might be entering the category of elite alongside Crosby.
According to Vinny Bonsignore of the Las Vegas Review-Journal, Crosby had some company as the top performer in Raiders’ training camp over the last two weeks in Costa Mesa, California…
“[Jack Jones] has been dialed in in practice. There have been days where he was the best player on the field,” Bonsignore told JT The Brick, who has also been at camp and nodded in agreement. “That’s saying something with Maxx Crosby on the field [and] Christian Wilkins on the field, but he has earned that. I think that if he stays on the right track and stays focused and dialed in, he’s got the potential to be a top-10 NFL cornerback.”
Jones has a deep history with Raiders head coach Antonio Pierce, and Pierce talked in the offseason about how he was able to talk Mark Davis into picking up Jones, who had just been released by the New England Patriots because of character concerns.
Pierce said he tried to talk the Raiders’ decision makers into drafting Jones back in 2022, but “wasn’t in a position to have any say.” The Patriots drafted Jones in the fourth round (one pick ahead of the Raiders) and when the opportunity came again to get his former player, Pierce said he didn’t want to come up short again.
This was the story Pierce gave Keyshawn Johnson in February on the All Facts No Brakes podcast…
“As soon as [Jack Jones] hit that wire and I saw it come across, I ran right upstairs to our interim GM Champ Kelly. I said ‘Champ, he can help us.” [Champ said] ‘Aww, I don’t know, man. He got a lot of baggage.’
I said ‘Oh, I know. Trust me. I been here for all of it.’
Then I went to Mark Davis. [He said] ‘I don’t know A.P. Right now you want to do that?’
So, I let it kind of ride for about a couple hours and went downstairs and did some homework, watched some more film, researched a little bit more and went back upstairs. This time it wasn’t about asking. I’m pounding on the table. I said ‘You know what? I believe in him so much, if we F this up, get rid of both of us at the end of the season because I know what I’m getting with Jack Jones.’
First and foremost, Jack is not a bad young man. He’s a father. He graduated from ASU. He made decisions that we all made at certain times in our life that we wish we could go back. He has never hurt anybody. He’s done nothing so criminal that he’s put himself in the position to be jailed…
But when you put him in a culture and an environment where he can be taught, led, groomed, hugged, loved, disciplined, and you can keep recycling that cycle with him, you’re going to get the best out of him. And what you saw in those last six or seven weeks that he was with us, was just that. Because on the field, he’s a problem, and that’s in a good way.”
x: @raidersbeat