This one was a bit of a shocker. When Johnnie Jones finished his career, he was Tennessee football’s all-time leading rusher by a good 500 yards. The guy went over 1,100 yards his junior year and over 1,200 yards his senior year, and he was associated with a very talented group of UT players in the 1980s who helped Johnny Majors return the program to prominence.
However, after Jones was drafted by the Seattle Seahawks in the fifth round of the 1985 NFL Draft, he never actually made it in the pros. Jones was waived in August, before the season ever began and never played a game at that level.
There was a two-year stint in Canada with the Hamilton Tiger-Cats in 1987 and 1988, but he had a bad knee and hamstring injury that he couldn’t shake, which forced him to retire. Those health issues may have been why he was never able to make it at the NFL level. After all, if he had a bad knee, it likely didn’t just show up in 1987.
Jones, as a result, is in the same category as Steve Johnson and Harlan Davis. However, we have him higher on the list, despite being drafted behind Davis, because he actually had two years signed to NFL teams. After being waived by the Seahawks, he joined the Houston Oilers for a brief stint in 1986. That’s enough to slightly put him above the other guys.