Kris Jones growing into multi-purpose linebacker role in second Georgia season

When reporters were invited in to watch practice on the first day of Georgia spring drills back in March, one player stood out on the defensive side — Kris Jones. The Bulldogs were donning helmets and shorts, so it wasn’t Jones’ performance. It was the fact that he was with a different position group.

The Virginia native was signed to play inside linebacker at Georgia, and he spent the season at that spot. Jones battled injuries and didn’t get on the field, but most, if not all, of his practice reps came with Glenn Schumann’s group.

He made the shift to outside linebacker this spring with Georgia light on bodies at the position. After those 15 practices/scrimmages and more than two weeks of preseason camp, Kirby Smart is seeing some progression.

“He’s grown a lot at that position, continues to grow,” Smart said on Tuesday. “He’s a kid that we want to be able to develop as both inside linebacker, outside linebacker. He does some packages on third down that allow him to play stack back and rush from standing up, things he’s done in the past. So it really just, it helps our team. He’s got the ability to be versatile.”

It’s certainly not uncommon for the Bulldogs to cross-train players between the inside and outside linebacker spots. Jalon Walker comes to mind as the most recent example, spending all three of his seasons in Athens working at both spots. He was taken No. 15 overall by Atlanta in the 2025 NFL Draft.

Jones’ move, however, probably had a lot more to do with need. In addition to losing Walker and Chaz Chambliss to the NFL, Georgia lost Damon Wilson and Samuel M’Pemba to the transfer portal, making it shorthanded at the position. By the time Wilson moved on, it was too late to make much of a move in the transfer portal so the Bulldogs had to roll with its roster as was for the spring.

Fast forward to Georgia’s second preseason scrimmage on Saturday, and Jones was getting a ton of first-team reps. He got the start with the No. 1 defense and got most of the opportunities with the ones as the Bulldogs worked on specific situations.

A former four-star prospect, Jones played plenty of EDGE at the high school level. He’s familiar with what it takes to rush the passer and play the run fro the end of the line of scrimmage. According to Smart, he also has the physical skillset to get it done.

“Well, he helps us because he has length,” Smart said. “He has the ability to play on tackles. We multi-purpose those guys. There’s not an outside linebacker that hasn’t been here that we don’t ask to stack, fall over the top, play goes away, you become an inside backer, play to you. You gotta be able to play on offensive tackles and set edges. And he’s able to do both those things.