Washington Football: Ty Jones has makings of star wide receiver

In the search for the next standout wide receiver for Washington football, have they found one in the physically gifted Ty Jones?

Washington football is in a great spot with spring drills about to wrap up across the nation. You would have to pose a tough argument to say that the Huskies wouldn’t be the Pac-12 favorite entering the upcoming regular season. The Stanford Cardinal and USC Trojans look like the strongest competition in the same conference.

However, one question the Huskies do have to answer in the fall is how to replace versatile wide receiver Dante Pettis. Last year, Pettis managed to set the FBS record for most career punt returns for touchdowns.

Since there’s not really an obvious next man up in UW’s receiving corps, they’ll have to find someone new to step up in 2018. A player to watch that could fit into that category is a rising sophomore receiver Ty Jones. As a four-star prospect in the 2017 recruiting class, Jones has the necessary skill to become a standout receiver in the Pac-12.

The overall lack of targets for Jones in 2017 makes him still a wide receiver that is largely flying under the radar, even in the Pac-12, entering 2018. His physical tools and recruiting rankings should make him enough of a hyped rising sophomore to see him as a dark horse to have a breakout campaign come this fall.

Altogether in 2017, Jones caught seven passes for 71 yards and no touchdowns. He’ll be able to claim more of the targets that headed the way of Pettis last year. And, Jones still has a quality quarterback looking his way in rising senior Jake Browning. Even in the years past the 2018 campaign, the Huskies have one of the deepest quarterback depth charts in the nation thanks to head coach Chris Petersen.

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Washington has the potential to be one of the best offenses in the Pac-12 in 2018, led by Browning and rising senior running back Myles Gaskin. The 6-foot-4 athletic receiver Jones could fill the hole in the receiving corps that rounds out the Huskies’ three-headed monster on the offensive side of the ball.