Cowboys’ Andy Jones confident he’ll bounce back after two drops

Dallas Cowboys wide receivers coach Derek Dooley cracked a light-hearted joke about undrafted rookie Andy Jones dropping two passes in the preseason opener.

“Long ways from Jacksonville, ain’t it? I-AA, you know?” Dooley said. “It was a great learning experience for him. You can sit there and say, ‘Well, you’re technique here, you’re technique there.’ The bottom line is learning what kind of thoughts are going on in your head and learning to control them.

“I’m sure the environment felt big. It was his first game as a Cowboy coming from a I-AA program. On top of that, it was his first play he was in. We didn’t ease into it. So hopefully he got that out of him. He’s got a lot of ability and we’ll just see how he progresses.”

Jones had made a name for himself early on in training camp as a player with a real shot to land a spot on the 53-man roster. And he knows his first live action didn’t go too well.

As Dooley said, on the first offensive play of the second half, Jones dropped a pass from Jameill Showers. Then, as the Cowboys were trying to comeback from a 28-24 deficit late in the game, Jones caught a 9-yard pass but then dropped the next pass on third and one.

“I feel like I’m going to learn from it,” Jones said. “It happened. Definitely ready for anything that comes my way now. I’m not going to let anything on the outside affect me. Just looking forward to the next game.”

That’s the mindset that coach Jason Garrett and Dooley want Jones to have. This is a guy who is trying to make the jump from Jacksonville University – a FCS school that plays in the Pioneer Football League – to the NFL.

Fellow receiver Dez Bryant even gave Jones a vote of confidence afterward, saying: “He came from a small school. Not to make any excuses for him, but Andy is a darn good football player. He was nervous.

“As soon he gets the butterflies out you are going to see. Andy is a special guy.”

Garrett echoed those thoughts as one forgettable game doesn’t ruin what Jones has shown so far in training camp.

“He’ll learn from the whole experience – what his mindset, what his mentality, what his emotions were like during the game,” Garrett said. “At the end of the day, you want the player to show who they are – that’s the idea. You want to create an environment where they just show you the best version of themselves, whether it’s on the practice field or in the game. For a lot of young guys, putting the uniform on for the first time, they probably had a lot of different emotions that they were feeling.

“Ultimately, we want them to breathe, smile, get a little bounce in their step and go play football like they’ve played it since they were 7 years old. Guys will get to that point – I know Andy will.”

This story was originally published August 15, 2016 at 9:43 PM with the headline "Cowboys’ Andy Jones confident he’ll bounce back after two drops."