NFL preseason making former Vols coach Butch Jones look horrible

Former Tennessee football Volunteers head coach Butch Jones has not looked good in preseason given what’s been happening with his former players.

It’s not hard for people on Rocky Top to criticize Butch Jones’s tenure with Tennessee football. Overseeing a winless team in the SEC his fifth year at the helm will do that. But the beginning of NFL Preseason for 2019 has made Jones look, if possible, even worse.

Already criticized for misusing talent in Knoxville, two former Vols began to shine playing different positions than where Jones had them. The most notable of the two was Dallas Cowboys wide receiver Jalen Hurd.

Remember, Hurd was a five-star running back out of high school in 2014. He played for the Vols for two and a half years before transferring midway through 2016. After sitting out in 2017, Hurd became a star receiving tight end in 2018 with the Baylor Bears.

In his first NFL preseason game with the San Francisco 49ers, Hurd caught two touchdown passes. He should have been playing receiver all along in Knoxville, but Jones tried to force him in his spread, which didn’t work, and he took carries away from Alvin Kamara in the process in 2015 and 2016. The obvious move would have been to have Hurd start alongside Ethan Wolf.

Oh, and speaking of Wolf, he managed to sign a deal with the Jacksonville Jaguars, according to reports on Monday. A very solid receiving tight end, Jones’s misuse of the offense in 2017 killed Wolf’s draft stock. So he had a lot to overcome, but a year away from Jones allowed him to ink a deal.

Then there’s Kahlil McKenzie. Recruited as a five-star defensive tackle, McKenzie was clearly more meant to be an offensive lineman. And after going to the Kansas City Chiefs last year, he immediately converted.

McKenzie has now spent a full year working there and developing, and he made a splash blocking for a Mecole Hardman touchdown in KC’s 38-17 NFL preseason win over the Cincinnati Bengals. He is now developing at a spot Jones never considered him to play, and by the way, given how bad the offensive line was in 2017, he definitely should have made such a switch.

So Hurd and McKenzie are shining at positions Jones did not have them playing, and then Wolf got signed after a year away from Jones. But while all these former Vols likely embarrassed him, one player took it to another level.

Antonio Brown is that player. Yes, that Antonio Brown. He played for Jones with the Central Michigan Chippewas and is a big part of Jones selling his ability to evaluate talent, even if he lost J.J. Watt at the time to the Wisconsin Badgers because he tried to force him to play tight end.

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Anyway, Brown, a rare success story for Jones when it comes to identifying talent, is undoing that with all of his antics. He had already built a bad reputation with how he left the Pittsburgh Steelers.

But now the Oakland Raiders will have to be without him for a while because he went got frostbite after going through cryotherapy. Then, of course, was his bluff to refuse to play unless he could use his old helmet, despite the newer ones being safer and over 100 options available for him. He buckled on that one Monday.

Still, these antics of Brown clearly indicate somebody who suspends logic. And who suspended logic as a coach better than Jones? Brown’s decisions are the logic equivalent of passing on the one-yard line, not going for two while up 12 in the fourth quarter, and not using a dime package in a Hail Mary situation all against the Florida Gators.

It seems that Jones had a bigger impact on Brown’s mind than his abilities. Okay, maybe that’s not fair. But given how Hurd and McKenzie have made him look already this NFL preseason, Jones has to be super-annoyed at the negative attention Brown is receiving. All of this brings more embarrassment to him.