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Signee Analysis: Linebacker Christian Jones

Originally posted on Nebraska Cornhuskers on SI
By Jeremy Pernell | Last updated Feb 11, 2025 7:00 AM ET

Nebraska's linebacker room is in the middle of a transition period. The defense is replacing all three second-level defenders who were multi-year starters for the Huskers. Outside of Vincent Shavers and Willis McGahee, the returning players are largely unproven. Knowing this, the coaches went into the transfer portal to fill gaps in the lineup.

Former Oklahoma defender Dasan McCullough — who could also play rover — is MJ Sherman's likely replacement at the Jack position. The defense will swap out Mikai Gbayor, who transferred to Missouri, with Georgia Southern's Marques Watson-Trent, the Sun Belt Conference Defensive Player of the Year.

The team also received good news last month when it was announced Javin Wright would return for a seventh season after he was given a waiver by the NCAA. That gives the Blackshirts a solid five-man rotation with the upside to be better than their predecessors.

Last year, five different inside linebackers played at least 175 snaps, while the Jack position featured three players who topped 140. That lets you know there are still a couple spots in the rotation up for grabs.

The Huskers signed an outstanding linebacker class and having established players in place offers a similar dynamic to last season where Shavers and McGahee were afforded valuable reps without the pressure of being frontline guys.

I'm expecting a similar workload from Christian Jones to what we saw from Shavers at inside linebacker. Shavers averaged around 13 snaps a game during the regular season playing behind John Bullock, Mikai Gbayor and Javin Wright.

With Shavers now a likely starter alongside Marques Watson-Trent — with Javin Wright being a heavy rotation player — I envision the Omaha Westside standout with a similar runway into major college football.

The 6-foot-2, 230-pound Jones has been regarded as one of the top overall players in the Midwest for his class since he started varsity as a freshman at Omaha Burke. He received his first offer from the previous Husker staff after he visited for the Purdue game on Oct. 30, 2021.

He received offers from regional programs Minnesota, Iowa State and Kansas after the season and was made a priority target of Paul Chryst at Wisconsin after he attended a junior day and was offered during the evaluation period in May 2022.

Jones transferred to Omaha Westside as a sophomore, following his coach, Paul Limongi, who left Burke for the storied Warrior program. He would go on to be the backbone of a Westside defense that dominated for the next three years, winning back-to-back state titles in 2022 and 2023 — one of the top teams in Class A history. The Warriors were in the state title game again this year before a 25-game winning streak ended with a loss to Millard South.

Regarded as one of the best defensive recruits to come out of the state in the modern era, Jones finished his high school career with 263 tackles, 46 tackles for loss, 12 sacks, five interceptions, 11 forced fumbles and two defensive touchdowns.

His profile had been steadily on the rise since he impressed at the Indianapolis Rivals Camp Series event in spring 2022, but he became a national recruit after his sophomore season when schools sought him out during the contact period in January 2023.

That same month, Rivals named him one of 12 top performers at the National Underclassmen Combine held annually in San Antonio in conjunction with the All-American Bowl. He was also named to the All-Combine Team by 247Sports. Jones was off and running from there, regularly being singled out as one of the top players at each camp he attended that offseason.

In April, he took home linebacker MVP honors at a stacked position group at the Under Armour Next Camp series in Kansas City. In June, he was regarded as one of the best players at the invite-only Under Armour All-America Future 50 event. Later that month he won the linebacker MVP award at the NextGen Five-Star Pro Day, one of the top underclassmen events in the nation that is put on by Rivals.

This past spring, Jones was busy taking visits as he narrowed his options down, so he didn't attend as many camps as the year prior. But he did take part in the prestigious Rivals Five-Star camp held at the Jacksonville Jaguars' facility June 25-26. Jones was named one of the top performers among the 104 players across the 2025, 2026 and 2027 classes selected to participate.

Jones would go on to collect around 20 Power Four offers, including Auburn, Boston College, Iowa, Kansas State, Michigan State, Missouri, Notre Dame, Penn State, Stanford, Tennessee, Texas A&M, UCF, USC and Washington.

Even as attention around him grew as an underclassman, Jones was patient, waiting to develop relationships and evaluate his options over time. Outside of trips to Nebraska, Notre Dame and Wisconsin, Jones held off on taking recruiting visits until after his junior season. Jones’ father, Dave Jones, played at Nebraska in the 1990s and despite growing up a Husker fan, Christian had long given serious thought to leaving Nebraska to play college ball.

Matt Rhule and Luke Fickell had continued to prioritize Jones after replacing coaching staffs at Nebraska and Wisconsin following the 2022 season. The Huskers and Badgers were early favorites of Jones', but as the calendar flipped to 2024 and Jones prepared to give his full attention to his recruitment, Notre Dame, Oklahoma, Auburn, Miami, Penn State and USC had joined the fray as favorites, with several other schools still attempting to get involved.

Jones had actually been considered a Notre Dame lean after visiting in October 2023 for the Fighting Irish's game against Ohio State. By the new year, however, Oklahoma and Nebraska moved ahead after January junior day visits to both schools.

Jones also attended a junior day at Florida in February and then unofficially visited Tennessee, Texas A&M and USC in the spring. He also took a trip to Lincoln to watch a Husker spring practice.

He took his first official visit to Auburn the weekend of June 7, after initially planning to see USC after his April unofficial visit went well. He pulled an audible because of his relationship with Tigers defensive coordinator DJ Durkin, who had been recruiting him for two years dating back to his time at Texas A&M.

Jones followed that trip with an official visit to Nebraska on June 14. Jones had been visiting Lincoln since Scott Frosts staff was in place during his freshman season, so this visit was more focused on coaches showing him how he could be an asset as a player.

He had a lot of one-on-one time with Matt Rhule and linebackers coach Rob Dvoracek, who watched tape with Jones to show him how he would be used in the defense. Jones spoke of what he looked for during visits to schools both officially and unofficially. There were three “pillars” — culture, development and education — he judged teams on. Coaching staffs and his potential fit in a defensive scheme were also big factors.

Rhule and his staff checked a lot of boxes for Jones, but he stayed consistent in his message that he needed to see more from the Huskers on the field. Keep in mind Jones had been recruited by Nebraska for nearly four years at that point — across multiple staffs. He'd heard plenty of talk about Nebraska turning things around on the field, but he wanted to see if Rhule could actually do it. He wanted to see the on-field performance match the offseason talk.

In the meantime, he'd also forged a strong relationship with Oklahoma, where head coach Brent Venables had been personally recruiting him. He was in Norman on June 21, which coincided with the Sooners' ChampU BBQ.

Jones was intrigued by Oklahoma being such a linebacker-centric program. Both Venables and his defensive coordinator at the time, Zac Alley, had extensive experience coaching linebackers. Jones was also recruited by assistant linebacker coach James Skalski, who was a LB at Clemson under Venables. Rufus Alexander, an analyst for the Sooners, played LB in the NFL for a couple seasons after playing for Venables at Oklahoma. Another analyst, Henry Weinreich, who Zac Alley brought with him from Jacksonville State, was also a former college LB at Division III Rhodes College.

Coming out of his run of official visits, the Sooners were in pole position with Nebraska nipping at their heels. Jones, who had considered committing to Oklahoma in the summer, decided to wait until September to make a decision and considered taking an additional visit to Miami, with Wisconsin also staying in his peripheral.

Jones visited Lincoln for Nebraska's first two games of the season, against UTEP and Colorado, and was blown away by the atmosphere for the showdown against the Buffs. He'd long stated his desire to see proof of the program's trajectory in order to join the class and after watching the Huskers dismantle Colorado, decided he'd seen enough.

He was planning a return trip to Norman to attend Oklahoma's game against Tennessee on Sept. 21, but he canceled. Saturday night after the Colorado visit, Jones called a few coaches, including Venables, to inform them personally that he was going to commit to Nebraska before going public with the news. He told Matt Rhule on Monday morning, Sept. 9, and announced his commitment over social media.

Arguably Nebraska's most important target of the 2025 cycle, Jones was a first-team Super-State selection by the Lincoln Journal Star and first-team All-Nebraska pick by the Omaha World-Herald as a junior and senior and was an honorary team captain for both publications.

Jones won the 2024 High School Butkus Award and is a 247Sports four-star prospect who was ranked the No. 82 (ESPN) and No. 103 (Rivals) overall player in the class. He was selected to play in both the Navy All-American Bowl and Polynesian Bowl.

He's a multi-sport athlete who along with being a basketball player,is also a standout in track and field. He has PRs of 10.89 (100m), 7.14 (60m) and has thrown 54 feet, 3.25 inches in the shot put. He was also the second leg of Westside's 4x100 relay team that posted a 41.75-second time to finish third in the Nebraska Class A state finals in 2023. He also runs the 200 meters and is part of the 4x400 relay team.

Jones' metrics are through the roof, and he has everything you look for in a modern linebacker. He's explosive with sideline-to-sideline range and covers ground quickly in the open field. He has really good lateral movement, fluid hips and change of direction for a linebacker.

He can do a little bit of everything on the field and has positional flexibility depending on the defensive scheme he's asked to play in. Can play inside at the Mike position or outside as well, but if Nebraska's defense remains relatively the same under John Butler, I think Jones is a great fit at the Will spot.

He can play in the box and is also comfortable in space. Whether in a camp setting or playing for Westside, Jones has had no problem guarding tight ends, running backs or slot receivers from his linebacker position. He could have received offers as a tight end, and his ball skills have been evident throughout his career.

The combination of speed and power Jones possesses is elite. With impressive read-and-react abilities at this stage, he packs a punch in the run game and won't have a problem covering most of the tight ends or running backs he faces at Nebraska. Jones enrolled early and is participating in winter conditioning. I expect him to take a big step this spring toward solidifying an early spot in the LB rotation this fall.