Buckeyes RG Matthew Jones announces return for 2023 season
COLUMBUS — Not every seasoned Ohio State offensive lineman is declaring for this year’s NFL Draft.
A day after left tackle Paris Johnson Jr. and center Luke Wypler announced they are moving on to the pros, Buckeyes right guard Matthew Jones revealed that he’s staying in Columbus for the sixth and final year of his college career.
“Although I have dreams and aspirations to play in the NFL, my college chapter does not close here,” Jones said in a statement he posted to social media. “With that being said, I will be returning to The Ohio State University for the 2023 season. It’s God’s plan and the brotherhood. I have unfinished business to take care of.
“Back at it again.”
After starting five games over the first four years of his Buckeyes career, Jones entered the 2022 season as the team’s everyday starter at right guard.
He dealt with what he called a “lingering” right foot injury but missed only one game. It was the regular season finale against Michigan — during which Enokk Vimahi started in Jones’ place, but Josh Fryar played the bulk of the snaps at right guard.
Jones had left the previous week’s game, a road thriller at Maryland, early after re-aggravating his foot injury. He used the month leading up to the Peach Bowl College Football Playoff semifinal to heal up, and despite questions surrounding his status for the matchup with Georgia’s vaunted D-Line, Jones started.
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The Brooklyn, New York, native played 70 snaps in nail-biting defeat to the eventual back-to-back national champs, although he did allow a sack and six pressures, per Pro Football Focus. To put that in perspective, Jones had give up only five pressures before that all season, not to mention zero sacks.
Jones’ PFF marks took a dip this season from a 2021 campaign that saw him play 459 snaps while filling in for holes across the Buckeyes’ O-Line. But his injury certainly factored in this time around, and he was still a second-team All-Big Ten selection.
Jones coming back, along with the return of soon-to-be third-year left guard Donovan Jackson, will soften the blow of what is expected to be the loss of three O-Line starters (right tackle Dawand Jones has yet to declare) leaving for the NFL.
