Falcons hire new assistant director of college scouting Dwaune Jones

The new Falcons front office under Terry Fontenot is taking shape, as the team announced a new assistant director of college scouting Monday morning.

Dwaune Jones is a former NFL and NFL Europe wide receiver who has spent the last four seasons as a Midwest college with the Baltimore Ravens. Before that, he overlapped with Fontenot in New Orleans as a regional scout for the Midwest and Northern regions and spent 11 years in that role, and clearly Fontenot appreciated what he saw from him in that capacity.

Here’s Fontenot via the team, once again providing a warm and encouraging statement about his newest hire:

“Dwaune has an incredible drive and knowledge of our game fueled by his extensive experience in the field as a scout,” said Terry Fontenot, the Falcons’ new general manager. “Like Kyle Smith, he is passionate about his craft and is a tireless worker who has a great appreciation for the process from A-to-Z. He is a great man with an exceptional family, and we are excited they are joining the Falcons family.”

As the Falcons note in their story, Jones’ tenure in Baltimore overlapped with the Ravens selecting Lamar Jackson, J.K. Dobbins, and other bright lights from his region. In New Orleans, players drafted or signed from his scouting region included Marques Colston, Malcolm Jenkins and Zach Strief, and between the 15 years of scouting experience and ties to Fontenot, he feels like a man due to make the leap to a larger role.

In Atlanta, he’ll join Fontenot, recent hire Kyle Smith, and the team’s scouting department to try and put together a stellar draft class in a year with no NFL Scouting Combine and restricted pro day activities. The Falcons head into the offseason needing help across the roster to be competitive again, but Jones and company will need to focus heavily on fixing a shaky defensive line, upgrading a depleted secondary, and getting their next feature back, among other challenges.

The team also confirmed to the Atlanta Journal-Constitution’s D. Orlando Ledbetter that longtime director of football operations and salary cap guru Nick Polk won’t be back with the team, opening up a hole in the front office Fontenot is probably trying to fill as we speak. Longtime college scouting director and team executive Anthony Robinson, who interviewed for the team’s general manager job before it went to Terry Fontenot, may remain on in his current role with Jones joining him, but we’ll have to see if there’s an announcement for that in the near future.

We wish Polk well, we’ll see if Robinson stays on, and we warmly welcome Jones to Atlanta.