The Buffalo Bills knew what they were signing up for when they drafted Cardale Jones in the fourth round.
Jones, a 6-foot-5 quarterback with a rocket arm, brings all the raw skills teams look for with players at his position. However, the former Ohio State quarterback is a bit rough around the edges and its blatantly obvious that he is their project for the 2016 season.
To this point in the offseason workouts, Jones has predictably been all over the place. He's shown those flashes of brilliance every once and again, but has also uncorked a few throws that aren't what you want from the position by any means.
As far as Jones goes, though, the Bills aren't drawing any conclusions just yet, because this was their plan all along:
"You know we are trying to really throw everything at him which is somewhat unfair, but in the long run it is probably the best way to do things," Bills offensive coordinator Greg Roman said after Wednesday's minicamp practice. "At some point we will titrate down, define the player and customize what we do with him. Right now we are exposing him to everything to get a feel for him. So we are not really in the evaluation phase, we are simply trying to get him prepared for training camp."
Jones is being thrown into the fire much like cornerback Ronald Darby was during the preseason in 2015, when the Bills tried to get him to learn from that experience in his rookie season. Darby went on to have one of the best seasons of any defensive rookie in the league.
While no one is expecting those type of immediate gains from Jones, as he continues to work with Roman and quarterbacks coach David Lee, they'll hope those flashes of brilliance become a little more commonplace.
At this point of the offseason, Cardale Jones is exactly who they thought he'd be: a developmental quarterback with a big upside.
