Connecticut cornerback Byron Jones surprised even himself with his epic broad jump Monday at the NFL Scouting Combine.
Jones leaped 12 feet, 3 inches, the longest in combine history and also thought to be a new world record.
"I was very surprised," Jones said on Tuesday's "Rich Eisen Show," although he acknowledged, "I've always been able to jump pretty well."
Jones said that while he did uncork a jump of 11 feet, 7 inches during training, he was expecting something in the 11-3 or 11-4 range.
But according to a tweet by NFL Media senior analyst Gil Brandt, Jones' record jump didn't necessarily surprise his agent.
Jones -- who was No. 50 in NFL Media analyst Daniel Jeremiah's listing of the top prospects before the combine -- said he met with "pretty much all 32 teams" either formally or informally. He said all the questions were straight-forward and football related, and that there were no off-beat questions. He said he thought that was because he had no character issues while at UConn.
He also said he enjoyed watching Tennessee Titans cornerback Blidi Wreh-Wilson, a former UConn teammate. "It was great watching him play at UConn," Jones said. "If anybody, I'd say I model my game after his."
Jones also got off a nice line about Eisen's annual 40-yard dash. Jones said he always watched: "Every year, I'm laughing my ass off."
Mike Huguenin can be reached at mike.huguenin@nfl.com. You also can follow him on Twitter @MikeHuguenin.