Landry Jones

Landry Jones (born April 4, 1989) is an American football quarterback for the Pittsburgh Steelers of the National Football League (NFL). Jones played college football for the University of Oklahoma. The Pittsburgh Steelers picked him in the fourth round of the 2013 NFL Draft.

Early years
Jones was born in Artesia, New Mexico. He attended Artesia High School in his hometown, where he led the football team to two consecutive Class 4A state championships, throwing for a combined 7,013 yards and 89 touchdowns. As a senior in 2007, Jones threw for 3,433 yards and 45 touchdowns. Artesia won its second consecutive Class 4A championship, against Goddard High, in which Jones threw for 325 yards and seven touchdowns, a school record. Jones was later named New Mexico's Class 4A Player of the Year and was a finalist for the Joe Montana Quarterback of the Year Award.

Jones was a highly regarded recruit and was among the highest rated quarterbacks for the 2008 class by several ratings publishers including a four-star rating by both Scout.com (sixth rated quarterback) and Rivals.com (sixth rated pro-style quarterback). He was recruited by many schools including Colorado, Oregon, Stanford, UCLA, Virginia and Wisconsin. He later committed to Oklahoma.

College career
While attending the University of Oklahoma, Jones played for the Oklahoma Sooners football team from 2008 to 2012. In 2008, third-string quarterback Keith Nichol transferred to Michigan State, leaving senior Joey Halzle and Jones, who was redshirted his freshman year, as backups to Sam Bradford. In 2009, in the season opener against Brigham Young, Jones took over as the starting quarterback for the Sooners after Bradford suffered an injury to his shoulder; the Sooners went on to lose the game. However, in the next game, his first as the starter, Jones completed 18 of 32 passes for 286 yards, with three touchdowns and an interception in the Sooners 64–0 win against Idaho State. In his second start, Jones threw a Sooner-record six touchdown passes with two interceptions in a 45–0 win against Tulsa. Later that week, Jones was named AT&T All- America Player of the Week.

Jones started the next game against the Miami Hurricanes due to Sam Bradford not being fully recovered from his shoulder injury. The Sooners lost the game, 21–20. Jones threw for 1 TD, but also had a fumble deep in Sooner territory that resulted in a Miami score on the next play. The next week against Baylor, Sam Bradford was able to return and Landry was relegated to the backup quarterback spot once again. The Oklahoma offense was sluggish and inconsistent at times, but was easily able to beat the Bears and was looking forward to the Red River Rivalry with Texas. On the second offensive series of the game, Bradford went down again with the same shoulder injury and Landry was thrust back into action against a very stout Texas defense. Marred by turnovers and mistakes by an inexperienced offense, the Sooners lost a close battle with the Longhorns, 16–13. Jones managed a TD pass to WR Ryan Broyles to tie the game in the 3rd Quarter.

Jones would become the starter for the rest of the season as Sam Bradford announced he would have season ending surgery on his shoulder and would then be leaving early for the NFL draft. With big shoes to fill, Jones slowly progressed throughout the season in wins against Kansas, Kansas State, and Texas A&M as well as some poor performances in losses to Nebraska (5 INTs) and Texas Tech. With a dominant victory over BCS-hopeful Oklahoma State, the Sooners received a bid to play in the 2009 Sun Bowl against Stanford. Landry Jones had his best passing performance of the year with 418 yards and 3 touchdown passes to Ryan Broyles, giving the Sooners their first bowl win since 2005 and propelling the team towards an optimistic 2010 in which Landry would have a full spring and fall camp to prepare as the starting quarterback.

In 2010, Landry Jones continued his starting job as Oklahoma's quarterback and guided the team through its first four out-of-conference victories. He would continue his dominant performance heading into the 2010 Red River Shootout, and defeated Texas by a score of 28–20. After the strong start, Landry Jones would suffer his first setback against Missouri by losing the game, 36–27. He would lead Oklahoma on a rebound with a few top-notch performances before suffering the second and final setback of the season against Texas A&M. After the defeat, Landry Jones would lead the team on another rebound by winning the rest of the way, including a highly anticipated matchup against the Oklahoma State Cowboys in the annual Bedlam Series. The match was settled in the last minute, but Landry Jones' incredible passing performance led Oklahoma past its in-state rival by a score of 47–41.

By rule of a tie-breaker, Oklahoma went into the Big 12 Championship Game facing its storied rival Nebraska. After trailing by 17 points, Landry Jones led the Sooners to a comeback 23–20 victory. After the win, Oklahoma went into the Fiesta Bowl as the champion of the Big 12 Conference, facing Connecticut as the champion of the Big East Conference. Oklahoma entered the game looking to break its recent streak of BCS bowl losses, while Connecticut was playing its first BCS bowl ever. Landry Jones had a great night and carried his team over Connecticut by a lopsided score of 48–20 to break the BCS bowl losing streak and to win Oklahoma's first BCS bowl since 2002.

In 2011, Landry Jones led the Sooners on dominant performances against opening foes such as Tulsa and Florida State. He would outdo his last year's performance in the 2011 Red River Shootout by defeating Texas by a score of 55–17. The Sooners suffered their first setback against Texas Tech, losing by a score of 44–41 at home after two missed field goals. He would continue Oklahoma's dominance before losing his lead wide receiver Ryan Broyles to a knee injury against Texas A&M. After the loss, Landry Jones entered a slump that included two losses to the Baylor Bears and the Oklahoma State Cowboys. Landry Jones ended up leading the Sooners to a victory in the Insight Bowl against the Iowa Hawkeyes to bring the Sooners another double digit winning season.

On January 5, 2012, Landry announced he was returning to Oklahoma Sooners for his senior season.

In 2012, Landry Jones led the Sooners to a 10–2 record overall (8–1 in the Big 12), and shared the Big 12 Conference Championship with Kansas State. Jones' turnovers were the difference in an early season loss to Kansas State, but he played well throughout the rest of the season. They faced former Big 12 member, Texas A&M in the Cotton Bowl Classic, where they lost 13–41. Landry Jones finished the season with a completion percentage of 66 percent with 4,267 passing yards, 30 touchdowns and 11 interceptions. His career ends with 16,646 passing yards and 123 touchdowns.

Professional career
NFL Combine stats: 40-Yard Dash 4.95 3-Cone Drill 7.12 20-Yard Shuttle 4.30 Vertical Jump 31.0 Broad Jump 115.0

Jones was drafted by the Pittsburgh Steelers in the fourth round (115th pick overall) of the 2013 NFL Draft.

Personal
Landry was named after Dallas Cowboys coach Tom Landry. Jones was featured in an "I Am Second" video proclaiming his faith in Jesus Christ.

Landry Jones married Sooner women's basketball guard Whitney Hand on July 6, 2012.