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Steelers Jarvis Jones once scored 20 points on Blake Griffin, bailed out on a dunk

Athletes are athletes, and the Steelers are looking for the uber-athletic Jarvis Jones to make plays against the Titans in Week 1.

By Neal Coolong
Geoff Burke-USA TODAY Sports
Defensive players tend to be more athletic on a higher-level football team than offensive players. The need to react and rally is pivotal to a player's success.

Not to take anything away from the insanely athletic players on the offensive side of the ball, but if one were to choose up sides for a basketball game consisting of football players, the defensive players would likely go earlier than the offensive players.

It seems as if Steelers rookie outside linebacker Jarvis Jones would be among the first chosen.

Brown wrote Wednesday Jones once scored 20 points on Los Angeles Clippers F Blake Griffin in an AAU game in Orlando, Fla.

When asked if Griffin - who's known for his highlight reel dunks - ever threw down on Jones, the rookie responded, "“He almost did,” Jones told Brown. “I jumped out of the way.”

The Steelers are hoping running backs and quarterbacks are the ones jumping out of the way now. Jones won't start in the Steelers' Week 1 game against Tennessee, but he figures to see a lot of action. Something of a rotation between Jones and Jason Worilds - maybe even LaMarr Woodley - will exist as the Steelers look to bounce back from two seasons in which they finished in the bottom 10 of the NFL in takeaways, and middle of the league in sacks.

Jones was drafted to help the Steelers do just that. The health of Woodley and a more upfield-attacking approach from the Steelers' defensive ends could send Pittsburgh back to a top five position in both categories - where they were in 2010, which was, not coincidentally, an AFC Championship season.

Kickoff between the Steelers and Titans is at 1 p.m. Sunday.

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