What Would Teams Be Getting: Tackle Levi Jones

Levi Jones' reputation is as one of the better left tackles in the league, the knock is that he struggles to stay healthy -- he missed the final five+ games last season with a leg injury, and he's also missed most of three games in 2007 and 10 more games in 2006. He's battled leg, foot and knee injuries throughout his career.

But to get an idea on whether Jones would be an impressive upgrade for a team in need of a left tackle, I went back and watched Jones play three games from the 2008 season. What I found is that unless he's significantly more healthy in 2009, Jones looks to be a bargain-basement version of his former self -- a left tackle who now struggles with leverage and speed rushers, two things that used to be some of his strengths.

It's not clear exactly when Jones' injuries started to bother him, but to try to see Jones at his best, I went back and watched his Week 3 game against the Giants, his Week 7 game against the Steelers and his Week 11 game against the Eagles. By watching him early in the season, in the middle of the season and in his final game before the injury sidelined him, it's a little easier to figure out if Jones was having a good season that was cut short by injury, or if he struggled all season.

After watching the three games, it becomes a little more clear why the Bengals would cut him right after drafting Andre Smith, even with their plans to move Smith to right tackle (at least in the short term). The Bengals' offensive line had many problems, and Jones was one of them. In those three games, I counted five sacks that Jones was directly responsible for. If you're being charitable you can disregard the sack he gave up in the Eagles' game -- Jones was hobbled enough to get blown away on each of the Bengals' first three passing plays which led to him being pulled from the game after just two series.

But even against the Steelers and Giants, Jones was giving up the edge to pass rushers way too often. He looked OK in the running game, but on last year's Bengals' offensive line, managing to keep a helmet on a defensive lineman for two seconds looked pretty good -- the team averaged only 3.6 yards per carry. But if you're a fan of a team who has a hole at tackle and you're wondering why they haven't gone out and signed Jones yet, there's a good reason. Until he proves he's a lot healthier than he's been recently, he's going to be a risky pick-up.