Expectations are high when you're a first-round pick in the NFL. It comes with the territory. When you're selected 17th overall, you're expected to perform or get on with your life's work. That's not fair, but just how it is.
So much of life is like that. When you get paid big money in business, you have to produce results. So far, in a brief NFL career, Jarvis Jones hasn't. The 2013 first-rounder from Georgia certainly didn't overwhelm anybody in his rookie season.
As he begins year No. 2, Jones, along with Jason Worilds, is a starter at OLB for the Dick LeBeau-led Steelers D. Nevertheless, quite a few fans and media types feel Jones is a bust.
That's right. After only one season of football, Jarvis Jones is considered to be a fail.
Seriously. One season.
I may be in the minority on this, but I feel the kid deserves a little bit more than 16 games to be judged a failure. His skills at Georgia were on display every Saturday in the rugged SEC, and it's one of the reasons the Steelers took him.
Granted, when he was in game action in 2013, his play didn't overwhelm, but it certainly wasn't so bad that you got the feeling he'd self-destruct to the point of not making enough plays to eventually become a starter.
We all know the challenge of learning this defense under Dick LeBeau is predicated on the notion that each player, especially a linebacker, must read what the other players around him are adjusting to and, based on that, determine his assignment for a given play. That can't be easy for any player, let alone one in his rookie season.
Physical ability will only carry you so far in this league. The days of the lunch pail-toting NFL player is over. You must have the brains to back up the brawn. Despite what he has struggled with, I do think Jones will turn things around and be the outside threat on defense that this team needs.
Without stellar linebacker play, this club is dead in the water. Jones and Jason Woirlds are poised to usher in the latest era of great Steelers' linebacker tandems. I'm not saying they'll be Ham and Lambert or Lloyd and Greene, but it's time we give these young guys the opportunity to find their way.
Just do it fast and better than the other guys in front of you.
Jarvis Jones will have a full season to show us what he's got. I, for one, look forward to him showing he's ready to take over and play as he was projected following last year's draft. If he can, this team might win 10 games.
If not, Jones could go down as another first-round bust. But I don't see that happening and I'm sure Jones is set on proving his many detractors wrong.
I believe he will.
John Phillips is a radio personality for 93.7 The Fan in Pittsburgh and a columnist for Behind The Steel Curtain. Check him out on Facebook and follow him on Twitter.