Texas Tech football: 2020 draft picks that could have saved Kliff Kingsbury’s job

OT Josh Jones from Houston

Another player that Kingsbury unsuccessfully tried to bring to Lubbock was Josh Jones.  Back in 2015, it was thought that Tech was in great shape to land the No. 100 tackle in the nation.

In fact, after Kingsbury and the Cardinals picked Jones in the third round of this year’s Draft, Matt Clare of Rivals.com Tweeted out that Jones took a last-minute recruiting visit to Lubbock before he ultimately decided to commit to his hometown Houston Cougars.

At first glance, we might not think about the offensive line as being one of the biggest struggles of the Kingsbury era.  Thus, would Jones have made that much of an impact?

But before we dismiss that idea, we have to ask ourselves why the quarterbacks have been so riddled with injuries the last few years; especially Alan Bowman.  Of the three major injuries Bowman has sustained in his career, two have come as a direct result of offensive line failings.

His first collapsed lung in 2018 occurred when he was sandwiched in the pocket by two West Virginia pass rushers.  Then, last season he was lost for the final nine games after a blitzing LB came right up the middle and drove him to the turf while landing on his shoulder.  In both instances, Bowman’s protection failed him and the results were disastrous.

Jones went from being a 3-star prospect in high school to a three-year starter who allowed just one sack in 2019.  That type of talent would have been fantastic for Tech to add to the offensive line over the last few years.

While Terence Steele and Travis Bruffy were solid tackles for Tech since 2016, neither was an NFL Draft pick as both signed free-agent deals after not being selected this past weekend.  Having a player like Jones to man one tackle would have been an upgrade and might have allowed Tech to slide either of those players to guard where they could have been an upgrade over the inconsistent Madison Akamnonu.

We’ve already discussed how the offensive line was unable to take up the slack in the running game when Bowman went down in 2018 and maybe, a line of Jones, Steele, Jack Anderson, Paul Stawarz, and Bruffy would have been the unit that could have kept the offense afloat during the season when Tech couldn’t keep a QB healthy.  In addition to Steele and Paul Stawarz in 2015, Tech added a trio of offensive linemen in Trace Ellison, Connor Dyer, and Cody Wheeler that never did anything for the program.  It’s too bad Kingsbury couldn’t flip Jones to Tech because he could have made a difference in Lubbock.