After a long preseason, the Revs have finally signed DeJuan Jones. Jones spent the last four years at Michigan State playing forward. The Revs took him 11th overall in the SuperDraft. Jones is coming off a great year at Michigan State. In 2018 he had 5 goals and 5 assists in 23 starts. Although Jones did get drafted as a forward, he has recently begun a transition to play more as a right back. This came up due to the recent injury Andrew Farrell sustained in preseason. As Jones said, “I am not exclusively a right back. With the injury to Farrel in preseason the team needed depth at the right back position.”
Jones grew up in Lansing, Michigan, just minutes away from where he would eventually play in college. He’s been playing soccer since the young age of 5 years old. Jones to this day still considers his parents his biggest mentors. As a winger/forward, Jones likes to try and adopt a lot of different players styles, but mostly models his type of play after Raheem Sterling. Jones had never played Right back before the draft. Despite this, he says he’s always had a defensive mindset. “I have always taken pride in my defending even as an attacking player. Just getting a better understanding of positioning and decision making has been a good learning experience.”
While Jones noted that most of his minutes in the preseason were in attacking wide positions and not at right back, with the injury to Farrell, right back seems like the most probable position to see him on the field as there is a lot of depth at the forward position. But don’t let this take away your opinion of his attacking abilities. Jones came out of the MLS combine with the fastest 30 meter dash and shuttle run times. When on the attack, Jones will always be a threat with his speed.