Q&A: 2023 De La Salle OL Caden Jones
Life has come at Caden Jones Caden Jones 6'7" | 255 lbs | OL De La Salle | 2023 State LA quickly in a really positive way the past two years. A 5-inch growth spurt between his freshman and sophomore…
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Continue ReadingLife has come at Caden Jones Caden Jones 6'7" | 255 lbs | OL De La Salle | 2023 State LA quickly in a really positive way the past two years.
A 5-inch growth spurt between his freshman and sophomore years sparked a move from defensive end to offensive tackle and a major recruiting explosion in his new position.
The 6-foot-8, 300-pound rising senior shared some of his perspective last week on his development thus far, staying hungry the string of more than 20 scholarship offers and his and his De La Salle team’s outlooks this offseason and fall.
What are some of the biggest differences in your day to day — whether your activity or your mindset and approach things — when you look at one year ago, April 2021, compared to now today, April 2022?
Last April. I wasn’t where I am today. I didn’t have all the offers. I wasn’t talking to all the coaches. I started hearing from all the coaches, and I still have had the same mindset that I had that I have to go out and attack everybody and show everybody where my name is and that what I can do is better than the people they have ranked higher than me. I still have that same mindset. It’s just that I have a bigger target on my back knowing that all the coaches are looking at me and expecting big things out of me. So I’ve just got to go out there and work and show my talents.
Do you remember when the big eye-opening moment or eye-opening moments were for you, whether it be in terms of what your potential could be and what type of player you could be or when the recruiting offers started to come… when you kind of had to take a step back and realize, “OK, this just hit another gear, and I’ve got to recalibrate a little bit”?
It was after last summer when I got my LSU offer, sitting in coach O’s office. I never thought I would be there, like if I asked my younger self if I would be sitting in Coach O’s office. And when I got home and I realized that, like, “Dang, I’ve really got to turn this up. I can’t fall behind.” Once you separate yourself from others, you can’t let them catch up.
It was pretty fast and furious for you after that one, too. You picked up a bunch pretty quickly. You had most of the Louisiana schools after that that pulled the trigger and extended the offer. It definitely didn’t slow down for you.
That was the crazy thing, though, is that it just got faster, if that makes sense.
That year of development for you (from freshman to sophomore year), and we talked about it a little before, but you grow from 6-foot-3 to 6-foot-8 in the span of a year and grow into that big tackle, what was that year like? Were you realizing how much you were growing as it was happening?
Not really, if that makes sense, because I don’t think many people know this about me, but I started off playing defensive end my freshman year. And then when I would grow, my coaches said, “Man, if you keep growing, we’re gonna have to move you to the offensive side of the ball.” And when I thought about it, I was like, “Man, no,” because I wanted to play defense. Then my 10th-grade summer, the first practice our head coach moved me over to the offensive side of the ball. And then that season, I just realized, “Man, I could really make something happen ay this position.” And I just stuck with it and started training it more, and here I am.
What were the biggest challenges to that position adjustment, or what were some ways that having played on the defensive side helped you in terms of your approach or your understanding as a blocker?
The lowest man always wins. That’s the first thing. Something that was hard for me was the steps, because the offensive lineman steps aren’t the same as the defensive lineman steps. When the defensive lineman comes off the ball, they go and go to the quarterback. That’s what I was used to. When the offensive lineman comes off the ball, you don’t have to slow your feet down, but you kind of pound your feet in the turf, get low and then you have to block him.
As a dude that is now 6-8 and grows five inches in a year, you mention “low man wins” — what kind of an adjustment is that to try to be the low man when you’re growing that fast?
Man, well, first off, being 6-8, there’s not many people I’m going to play against that are being than me or the same size as me. They’re always going to be lower. But I couldn’t use that as an excuse, because everywhere I went, I was the tallest man. So I just had to suck it up, and I would work hard every practice on just staying low, getting lower, getting lower and then it just became a habit coming off the ball, staying low, keeping your head up and blocking your man. So really it just came on as time went on.
How do you feel about being an offensive lineman in a program where coach (Ryan) Manale previously and now coach (Graham) Jarrott, there’s always been this emphasis on “Run. The. Ball.”? We’re in the 2020s now, and everyone wants to spread it out and throw the thing around. You were blocking for Montrell Johnson early in your career, who is obviously off to a fantastic start to his college career with his freshman year with the Ragin’ Cajuns and now transferring to Florida. And you’ve got Patrick “P.J.” Martin now, who was kind of Robin to Trell’s Batman and is now becoming one of the best running backs in the state. In a program that has had that type of an emphasis, how much fun is it sometimes getting out there in front of those guys and paving the way?
Man, it’s exciting. To know that your running back runs an 80-yard touchdown behind you, just as a unit that really fires you up. Knowing that Trell and P.J. put up those kind of numbers that they did in the time that they did and me knowing that I was one blocking for ’em, that just made me work harder. Because I saw they were winning, and I was feeding off their energy when we would score, and then we would just be unstoppable.
What have been some of the things that you’ve worked on most? You mention with all the offers that have, you have a need to stay hungry, realize that you’re still proving yourself and you also in some ways have a target on your back as a guy who has these offers. From a workload or technical standpoint, what are some things that, I guess particularly this offseason, that you have kind of top of mind that you’re really trying to attack and keep developing your skill set?
My punch. Since I have such a long wingspan, I tend to most times not use my punch or not use my full wingspan if that makes sense. I short-arm things. And this summer I’m focusing on using my full wingspan, because with that, I can create more separation between me and the defensive lineman, and that will just make it easier for me to get him off the ball.