The Washington Commanders sent shockwaves through the NFL when they hired former Minnesota Vikings defensive backs coach/defensive pass game coordinator Daronte Jones as their new defensive coordinator. It wasn't a move anybody expected, but it's one most people seem pleased with.
Jones was a coveted candidate who was interviewed by no fewer than five different teams. He's worked under Brian Flores in Minnesota for the past three seasons, and his résumé includes stints in the Canadian Football League and at Louisiana high schools.
Just how unique has Jones' journey to the top been? At the start of his coaching career, he was quite literally homeless.
Daronte Jones' long journey to the Commanders exemplifies the ultimate lesson in perseverance
You have to boast a relentless mentality to cut it as a coach in the NFL. Your job is never safe for long, and you take all of the blame but none of the credit. For Jones, it's been a lifetime of moving every couple of years, beginning with his time as a graduate assistant at Lenoir-Rhyne University in 2001.
In 2002, Jones lived in his 1988 Honda Prelude while working at North Park University, a Division III school in Chicago. He would keep the engine running to provide heat, and his aunt would call him in the morning to wake him up.
Coach Brian Schottenheimer spoke about coaches who love football. Show me another candidate (Daronte Jones) who slept in a car for 6 months to coach in Chicago.
— Boss *Show Me (@BossCowboySport) January 18, 2026
Do you know how cold Chicago can get? pic.twitter.com/Er05MW8znF
From there, Jones had one-year stops as the defensive coordinator at Franklin High School and Jeanerette High School in Louisiana, then a five-year run with Bowie State in Maryland. His big break came in 2010, when he was hired as the cornerbacks coach at UCLA.
Jones' first job in the NFL was in 2016, when he was a cornerbacks assistant on Vance Joseph's defense. He became the head cornerbacks coach for the Cincinnati Bengals in 2018 and has held that same role with the Vikings since 2022. In between, he served as LSU's defensive coordinator for a year in 2021.
His résumé reads as a lifelong process of slow but steady upward mobility. Jones is a quintessential case study in never giving up and in being willing to make any necessary sacrifices to follow your dreams. A success story that we can all feel inspired by.
Hopefully, for the Commanders, Jones can apply some of the lessons from his life's journey on the field as well, using them to motivate Washington's defense to play with heart and hunger. If he could sleep out in his car in freezing Chicago for months on end, his guys can learn how to make a few tackles.