Jonathon Jennings (born July 21, 1992) is an American former professional football quarterback who played for the BC Lions and Ottawa Redblacks of the Canadian Football League (CFL). He attended Saginaw Valley State University, where he played college football. Jennings made his professional debut for the Lions in 2015.
Born: | Columbus, Ohio, U.S. | July 21, 1992
---|---|
Career information | |
CFL status | American |
Position(s) | QB |
Height | 6 ft 0 in (183 cm) |
Weight | 205 lb (93 kg) |
College | Saginaw Valley State |
High school | Westerville South |
Career history | |
As player | |
2015–2018 | BC Lions |
2019 | Ottawa Redblacks |
Career stats | |
Pass completions | 1,086 |
Pass attempts | 1,637 |
Percentage | 66.3 |
TD–INT | 69–58 |
Passing yards | 13,651 |
|
Early life and college
editJennings played high school football and basketball at Westerville South High School, where he was a first team All-League player as a senior.[1] From 2010 to 2013, he played for the Cardinals at SVSU, where he threw for 10,710 yards and 96 touchdowns at the Division II program.[2] As a senior, Jennings threw for 3,824 yards for 30 touchdowns, additionally rushing for 470 yards and 12 touchdowns.[3] He studied finance in college.
College statistics
editGeneral | Passing | Rushing | |||||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Season | GP | Cmp | Att | Yds | TD | Int | Rate | Att | Yds | Avg | TD |
Saginaw Valley State Cardinals | |||||||||||
2010 | 9 | 99 | 168 | 1,064 | 9 | 8 | 120.3 | 60 | 111 | 1.9 | 1 |
2011 | 11 | 210 | 309 | 2,924 | 29 | 9 | 172.6 | 91 | 416 | 4.6 | 7 |
2012 | 11 | 270 | 420 | 3,282 | 27 | 10 | 146.4 | 82 | 291 | 3.5 | 6 |
2013 | 12 | 220 | 340 | 3,440 | 31 | 11 | 173.3 | 110 | 527 | 4.8 | 12 |
Career | 43 | 799 | 1,237 | 10,710 | 96 | 38 | 156.8 | 343 | 1,345 | 3.9 | 26 |
Professional career
editEarly career
editJennings was eligible for the 2014 NFL draft, but went undrafted. He tried out with several National Football League (NFL) teams prior to the 2014 season, including the Kansas City Chiefs, the Detroit Lions, and the Green Bay Packers.[2][3][4] He also tried out with the Saskatchewan Roughriders of the CFL in April 2014.[5] Jennings was not signed by any NFL or CFL teams in 2014, and did not play football professionally that year.[2]
BC Lions
editIn April 2015, Jennings was signed by the BC Lions of the CFL.[5] He competed for the back-up quarterback position on the depth chart, which he received in the season opener.[6][7] Jennings recorded his first statistic on July 17 against the Roughriders, where he rushed for one yard on a quarterback sneak.[8] Due to injuries to starting quarterback Travis Lulay, Jennings played in eight regular season games, starting six, and started in the Lions' lone playoff game. Jennings completed 66% of his passing attempts for 2,004 yards with 15 touchdowns and 10 interceptions. In his second career start, Jennings also caught a 21 yard touchdown pass on a contested catch thrown into double coverage by receiver Austin Collie on a trick play against the Saskatchewan Roughriders.[9] In March 2016, Lions GM and head coach Wally Buono announced that Jennings would enter training camp as the #1 quarterback on the depth chart (above veteran Lulay) and he hoped that Jennings would have earned that title by Week 1 of the 2016 regular season.[10] On May 5, 2016, Jennings and the Lions agreed on a contract extension through the 2018 CFL season.[11] Prior to signing the extension, Jennings would have become a free-agent following the 2016 campaign.[12] Following a less than impressive 2017 season Jennings agreed to restructure his contract for the 2018 season; lowering his initial salary, but adding more on-the-field incentives.[13] Jennings, who continued to struggle to start the 2018 season, was benched in favour of veteran Travis Lulay starting in Week 5.[14] Lulay suffered a concussion and separated shoulder in consecutive weeks, opening the door for Jennings to start for the remainder of the regular season.[15][16] Despite winning two of the following three games Jennings was once again relegated in favour of Lulay by Week 18.[17] In late November, following the close of the season, Jennings informed the Lions that he would not be re-signing with the team, intending to become a free agent in February 2019.[18]
Ottawa Redblacks
editOn February 13, 2019 Jennings agreed to a one-year contract with the Ottawa Redblacks for the 2019 season.[19] Jennings began the season as the backup quarterback to Dominique Davis.[20] Davis missed two games in July which elevated Jennings to the starting role. However, Jennings struggled in both outings, throwing for less than 200 yards combined with three interceptions and only one touchdown.[21][22] In Week 11 Jennings came in relief of Davis after he threw three interceptions in the first quarter of the game: Jennings completed 16 of 26 pass attempts for 208 yards with one touchdown, but was unable to lead the Redblacks to victory.[23] As Davis continued to struggle, and the Redblacks fell to 3-7, the team chose to name Jennings' as their starting quarterback in Week 13: Despite throwing for 327 yards Jennings and the Redblacks were defeated 46-17 by divisional rival Toronto Argonauts.[24] Jennings was demoted to third stringer, and closed out the 3-15 Redblacks' season with a three rushing touchdown performance, but his passing statistics for the year were the worst of his career. He was released by the Redblacks on January 23, 2020.[25]
Statistics
editPassing | Rushing | |||||||||||||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Year | Team | Games | Started | Att | Comp | Pct | Yards | TD | Int | Rating | Att | Yards | Avg | Long | TD | |||
2015 | BC | 18 | 6 | 215 | 142 | 66.0 | 2,004 | 15 | 10 | 99.8 | 26 | 127 | 4.9 | 17 | 0 | |||
2016 | BC | 18 | 18 | 554 | 371 | 67.0 | 5,226 | 27 | 15 | 102.1 | 68 | 363 | 5.3 | 20 | 4 | |||
2017 | BC | 18 | 14 | 466 | 306 | 65.7 | 3,639 | 16 | 19 | 83.8 | 55 | 267 | 4.9 | 27 | 2 | |||
2018 | BC | 18 | 6 | 239 | 161 | 67.3 | 1,628 | 8 | 7 | 85.6 | 36 | 226 | 6.3 | 33 | 0 | |||
2019 | OTT | 18 | 6 | 163 | 106 | 65.0 | 1,154 | 3 | 7 | 74.0 | 29 | 102 | 3.5 | 13 | 3 | |||
CFL totals | 90 | 50 | 1,637 | 1,086 | 66.3 | 13,651 | 69 | 58 | 91.4 | 214 | 1,085 | 5.1 | 33 | 9 |
References
edit- ^ "Jonathon Jennings". SVSU Cardinals. Retrieved July 25, 2015.
- ^ a b c Araki, Michiko (May 29, 2015). "GETTING TO KNOW JONATHON JENNINGS". BC Lions. Retrieved July 25, 2015.
- ^ a b Niziolek, Michael (May 11, 2014). "Kansas City Chiefs invite SVSU quarterback Jon Jennings to rookie mini-camp". MLive. Retrieved July 25, 2015.
- ^ Yuille, Sean (May 10, 2014). "2014 Lions undrafted free agent tracker". Pride of Detroity. Retrieved July 25, 2015.
- ^ a b "Jonathon Jennings". BC Lions. Archived from the original on July 7, 2015. Retrieved July 25, 2015.
- ^ Beamish, Mike (June 14, 2015). "Back up QB battle gets interesting". Vancouver Sun. Retrieved July 26, 2015.
- ^ "Depth Charts". BC Lions. Archived from the original on July 22, 2015. Retrieved July 25, 2015.
- ^ Bucholtz, Andrew (July 18, 2015). "Lions, Lulay run over Riders in a tale of teams going in different directions". Yahoo! Sports. Retrieved July 25, 2015.
- ^ "Jennings and Brooks earn CFL Player of the Week honours". October 5, 2015.
- ^ "Lions not ready to reward prime pivot Jennings just yet". www.vancouversun.com. Retrieved March 3, 2016.
- ^ "Lions, Jennings ink extension through 2018". CFL.ca. May 5, 2016. Retrieved May 5, 2016.
- ^ "B.C. Lions sign Jonathon Jennings to contract extension through 2018". The Globe and Mail. May 5, 2016. Retrieved May 5, 2016.
- ^ "Lions re-work contract with QB Jennings – Article – TSN". TSN. January 12, 2018. Retrieved January 13, 2018.
- ^ "Lions' Lulay to start against Bombers – Article – TSN". TSN. July 13, 2018. Retrieved July 13, 2018.
- ^ "Lulay in concussion protocol after exiting vs. Ottawa – CFL.ca". CFL.ca. September 7, 2018. Retrieved September 27, 2018.
- ^ "Report: Lions expect Lulay to miss 4–6 weeks – CFL.ca". CFL.ca. September 18, 2018. Retrieved September 27, 2018.
- ^ "Lulay, Sutton to start in Week 18 - CFL.ca". CFL.ca. October 9, 2018. Retrieved October 10, 2018.
- ^ "Report: Jennings informs Lions he'll become a free agent - CFL.ca". CFL.ca. November 27, 2018. Retrieved November 28, 2018.
- ^ "Redblacks reach a deal with former Lion QB Jonathon Jennings". CFL.ca. February 13, 2019. Retrieved February 13, 2019.
- ^ "Redblacks Name Davis Week 1 Starter". Ottawa Redblacks. June 3, 2019. Retrieved June 3, 2019.
- ^ "2019-07-19 Game Tracker - Ottawa Redblacks vs. Winnipeg Blue Bombers (2581)". CFL.ca. Retrieved August 20, 2019.
- ^ "2019-07-25 Game Tracker - Calgary Stampeders vs. Ottawa Redblacks (2584)". CFL.ca. Retrieved August 20, 2019.
- ^ Staff, 3Down. "Redblacks bench Dominique Davis after three atrocious interceptions against Riders | 3DownNation". Retrieved August 26, 2019.
{{cite web}}
: CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link) - ^ "2019-09-07 Game Tracker - Toronto Argonauts vs. Ottawa Redblacks (2608)". CFL.ca. Retrieved September 9, 2019.
- ^ "Transactions: January 23, 2020". Ottawa Redblacks. January 23, 2020. Retrieved January 23, 2020.
External links
edit- Jonathon Jennings at BC Lions
- Jonathon Jennings at Canadian Football League
- Jonathon Jennings at BC Lions (old link) at the Wayback Machine (archived November 9, 2015)
- Jonathon Jennings at CFL (old link) at the Wayback Machine (archived November 8, 2015)