The call came just as Ed Orgeron was pulling into a Taco Bell drive-thru, and the legendary LSU head coach quickly decided Sai’vion Jones was more important than a taco.
“Coach!” said Robert Valdez, then Jones’ coach at St. James High in Vacherie, La. “I got Sai’vion Jones on the phone.”
“Oh, hell, baby!” Orgeron exclaimed in his unmistakable Cajun drawl.
A few months after LSU had put together one of the most dominant seasons in college football history, the now-ex head coach was trying to win another recruiting race in spring 2020: Jones, a four-star edge rusher who’d sprouted into a top Louisiana prospect. Jones decided he wanted to stay in his home state. So he told Valdez to call Orgeron.
At this moment, though, the Taco Bell kiosk crackled to life.
Can I take your order?
“I’m on the phone with Coach Valdez and Sai’vion Jones!” Orgeron barked at the cashier.
Jones told Orgeron he’d talked to Valdez. He’d talked to his mother. He wanted to commit to LSU.
Orgeron burst out screaming in the middle of the drive-thru.
“I don’t even think he ordered Taco Bell,” Valdez remembered. “I think he just left.”
Five years later, the Broncos traded back up into the third round of April’s NFL draft to take the kid who’d once made Orgeron turn down a Burrito Supreme. You don’t need to squint to see why. Jones’ raw traits have always been jaw-dropping — a 6-foot-6 defensive end who can combine an edge rusher’s twitch with an interior lineman’s power. And the LSU product would have “time to develop,” as Denver general manager George Paton noted after the draft’s second day, behind a stacked defensive line.
“We feel like he can continue to grow in that role,” Paton said.
Three months later, though, Jones’ timeline may have accelerated.
“Man, he does the dirty work inside,” Paton told reporters Thursday on a conference call. “He’s developing a pass-rush arsenal. He’s right on track to play this year.”
If Jones rounds into more of a tangible NFL force than a raw idea over the coming months, it’ll have massive implications for the future of Denver’s defensive line. On that same call where he lauded Jones, Paton brushed off any direct confirmation that the Broncos view John Franklin-Myers as a part of their long-term future, simply saying he was one of a few vets on expiring deals who Denver would “like to” have back.
“It’s a puzzle, kind of like your roster management, like the 53-man,” Paton said. “So we’re working through a lot of that now.”
The Broncos didn’t directly engage Franklin-Myers in extension talks this offseason. The veteran defensive lineman could reasonably command $20 million a year on the open market. But the Broncos just shelled out a massive extension for Zach Allen that’ll increase in cap figure for the next four years, and are now likely tasked with paying OLB Nik Bonitto upwards of $30 million a year. They also have to account for a possible extension for quarterback Bo Nix after the 2026 season.
Meanwhile, they have a third-round rookie defensive lineman in Jones who’s under four years of team control, and one inch taller and a pound heavier than Franklin-Myers. It’s not difficult to connect a few dots.
“He’s young right now,” starting nose tackle D.J. Jones (no relation) said of Jones in June. “He’s eager to learn.
“But he will be very special one day.”
Of course, the notion of replacing Franklin-Myers isn’t so simple. The 28-year-old interior pocket-mover has long felt undervalued. But he’s far from undervalued around the league, said Cowboys defensive line coach Aaron Whitecotton, who had Franklin-Myers for three years with the New York Jets.
Quietly, Franklin-Myers has racked up 50-plus pressures and 30-plus QB hurries for five straight seasons, per PFF. When he arrived in Denver in 2024, defensive line-mate Allen’s production blossomed. When he left New York, defensive line-mate Quinnen Williams’ production dropped.
“To have two inside rushers does balance things out for us,” defensive coordinator Vance Joseph said in August. “So, someone’s getting a one-on-one. It’s just math, right?”
Also math: Jones’ 2025 cap number is $8 million less than Franklin-Myers’ number.
The development path for Jones is clear after he gradually shifted from the edge to more interior alignments at LSU. He can play “across the line,” Jones asserted on his draft call in April, and he has shown an ability to create pressure up the middle in his few months in Denver. He broke out a nasty swim move for a would-be sack in camp. He pushed an Arizona center back into Cardinals quarterback Clayton Tune in Week 2 of the preseason.
“When you get those defensive end guys that can transition to playing interior guys and still maintain the weight, then you’ve added an extra, better athlete to the field — I think that’s what he brings to the table,” said Valdez, who both coached Jones in high school and later coached against him as an offensive line coach at Grambling State.
“When you look at him, you project. You look at the athleticism, and then you look at the height and the potential that, with your training regimen and your meal plan, to make sure that he has the proper weight to really control and set the interior,” Valdez continued. “That’s what makes him so attractive.”
It is still potential right now. Jones’ length (33.5-inch wingspan) could make him a plus against the run. He was decidedly a minus in 2024 with LSU, with a 26.1% missed tackle rate, according to PFF. But Broncos head coach Sean Payton noted Jones had made progress across the last 10 days of preseason.
“He’s getting there,” Payton said when asked if he felt Jones was ready to play as a rookie.
When Jones left Louisiana to report for Denver’s rookie minicamp in May, he passed Valdez on the highway, coincidentally. He called his old coach, who’d seen him zip by.
“You better slow your ass down,” Valdez told him, he remembered.
“Listen, man, I gotta catch a plane, man!” Jones replied. “Coach, I gotta catch a flight.”
Denver doesn’t need Jones to be in a hurry. But he’s still speeding up.
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