a day ago
Travis Jones is Ravens' best player you know nothing about. That's exactly how he wants it
A longtime high school football coach, John Acquavita, had gotten similar phone calls before. This one didn't feel any more unique or promising than the others.
Joycelyn Ward told Acquavita that she wanted her son, Travis, to join the football team at Wilbur Cross High in New Haven, Conn. He was spending too much time inside and needed to be more active. She told Acquavita that Travis had never played football, but she thought he would be good at it.
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After all, he was pretty big, she told him.
'I've heard that before,' Acquavita said. 'Then you get 5-foot-8, 230, and they are pudgy guys.'
Nonetheless, Acquavita invited Ward to bring Travis down to the school. The football team was in the middle of its summer lifting program, and the head coach would make sure to get Travis acclimated.
'When I got there that day, there was a car in the lot already,' Acquavita recalled. 'It was this Honda Accord. I was walking by the back of it, and I saw the car was literally tilted to the right side. I look into the car, and I just see this mass of humanity.
'This kid has never seen me in his life, but I walked up to him, gave him a hug and I said, 'You and I are going to be best friends over the next four years.''
Travis, who was about 6-foot-2, 240 pounds at the time, didn't want to play football. He was a baseball player, he insisted. He was going to bat cleanup in the big leagues. Ward remembers having to push him out of the car that first day.
Now? Travis Jones is probably most comfortable when he's out on the football field or in the weight room. He loves everything about it, the countless hours of practice and preparation included.
'That's where I feel at home,' he said. 'You just have to embrace the hard stuff. You have to go through it. After all of that, you're going to get what you really want.'
The fourth-year Baltimore Ravens defensive lineman is a 6-foot-4, 341-pound embodiment of a nose tackle in today's NFL. He anchors that large backside and those meaty thighs and calves to absorb double-teams and keep blockers away from the inside linebackers. He uses his oversized hands and arms to toss aside centers and guards. He's strong enough to treat the guy in front of him like a blocking sled and quick and explosive enough to shoot a gap and throw a scare into the quarterback.
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'If you go watch the first couple games (last year) when Trav was healthy, you could argue he was just as dominant as Dexter Lawrence out there,' Ravens outside linebacker Kyle Van Noy said. 'If you really watched the film, he was that dominant.'
On a defense stocked in big personalities with big resumes, Jones might just be the Ravens' best player whom you don't know anything about. That's exactly how he wants it.
As he spoke to a reporter following a training camp practice last week, Jones rested a towel over his head, partially obscuring his face. It was a long and hot day, so the towel served a clear purpose. It was also tough not to look for further meaning, as Jones has put up a barrier between himself and the media for much of his young career.
The 25-year-old is always pleasant and wearing a big smile. He's always smiling. Did you see the video of him in the pool last week getting swimming lessons from Michael Phelps? The grin extended across his face.
Dive contest: who did it best?? 😂
— Baltimore Ravens (@Ravens) August 12, 2025
Just don't ask Jones what makes him tick or any probing questions about himself, because he'll have little to say.
'I hate talking about myself,' he said, 'and I don't enjoy the attention.'
That's one reason Jones has spent three-plus seasons in Baltimore, starting 18 games as a 2022 third-round draft pick, in near anonymity. That's also a product of the position he plays. Interior defensive linemen don't get a ton of glory unless they are prolific sack guys. Jones is not that, at least not yet. He has 3 1/2 career sacks, but quarterbacks are aware of where he is on every play.
There's also the matter of Jones having little interest in letting anybody in or even returning anybody's calls or texts. Acquavita once jokingly told Jones he was going to start charging him a yearly stipend for the number of calls he got from people who were going through him to get a message to his former player.
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'Look, I'm his mom and I have to think of ways to pull it out of him,' Ward said. 'You have to get really creative. He doesn't like to talk. It's that simple.'
Jones insists that there's nothing particularly interesting or unique about his path to the NFL. He maintains that he didn't face any major challenges in his youth, that he was never left wanting or coveting what other kids his age had.
Born in New Haven, Jones' birth father wasn't a regular presence in his life, but he still had a sizable support system with Ward, his older sisters, Amber and Alana, and his grandparents, Isabella and Clarence Windley.
Ward was his biggest advocate and fiercest protector. She shielded her son from some of the family's struggles. His older sisters looked after him, and still do. Jones joked that they can be overbearing at times. Clarence, the father figure in Jones' life, never pushed sports on him, but he did harp on a message that has served Jones well: If you're going to start something, finish it. And don't cheat the process along the way.
Jones had no premonition that football would stick. He still fancied visions of succeeding on the baseball diamond, where he was so big and intimidating as a pitcher that parents from the opposing team would threaten to not allow their kids to step in the batter's box against him. At the very least, they wanted to see his birth certificate.
It didn't take long for Acquavita, though, to realize he may have something special.
Acquavita was intrigued. Kids Jones' size weren't exactly frequenting the halls of high schools around the country. Acquavita brought Jones and his buddy, Rickqueal Warren, both of whom were freshmen, up to the varsity for a preseason scrimmage. He eased Jones in, sending him on the field in the third quarter.
On his first play, Jones split a double-team and took the running back down in the backfield. Such plays became regular occurrences.
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'I never looked back,' Jones said.
Jones was a force, and he was getting bigger and stronger, while not sacrificing athleticism. Acquavita remembers Jones soaring above the rim to dunk a basketball with two hands at nearly 360 pounds. Jones' play took a significant step forward when he learned how to lift and adhere to a workout regimen. When he'd come home from school and start reciting the names and stats of NFL players, Ward knew her son was hooked.
He garnered interest and scholarship offers from a number of Power 5 programs. Jones hastily committed to Rutgers, yet he got cold feet. UConn had a struggling football program, but what mattered most to Jones was that Storrs was only about 30 minutes from home. His friends and family could attend every one of his home games.
'I have no regrets about him going to Connecticut,' Ward said. 'At the time, it was best for him. But I'm like, 'If he went to a place like Alabama, he would have gone first round.' The football player, I wish he could have gone (elsewhere). The boy, Travis, I was glad he stayed.'
Jones was recruited by Connecticut and other programs as an interior offensive lineman. He said all of his scholarship offers were to play offensive guard, and he was OK with that. However, after he arrived on campus, the Huskies' coaching staff had a change in plans. Their standout defensive tackle, Foley Fatukasi, had just gone to the NFL, and they needed a replacement.
'When you saw him come out of high school, you just saw that raw ability that he had,' said former UConn coach Randy Edsall. 'The biggest thing is we knew that he never was going to reach his full potential while he was at UConn. He was still on the rise. Some guys peak in college. Travis was just ascending as he was coming out of college. You knew his best years were going to be ahead of him.'
A local kid staying home, Jones became one of the faces of a rebuilding football program. The Huskies went just 4-32 in Jones' four years at the school, but he persevered through the losing and embraced the college experience. He worked on his body, losing 30 pounds ahead of his sophomore season. He was an impactful player on the field, with teams quickly realizing he needed to be double- or triple-teamed.
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Clemson decided that it didn't need to double a defensive tackle from Connecticut, and Jones had one of his most impactful games. When he took a step up in competition, like at the Senior Bowl, Jones flourished.
He was still uncomfortable being the center of attention, but he became a walking billboard for everything the Huskies needed more of in their program.
'He was just a great kid, and he was brought up the right way,' Edsall said. 'He was a kid that struggled a little bit academically, but he always did the work and was always going to put in the time and do everything he was supposed to do. You never had to worry about it. His mom was a stickler for doing things the right way, and Travis did those things. He was just a very respectful kid. You have 105 on your roster. You'd like to have 105 Travis Joneses.'
Ravens center Tyler Linderbaum, a two-time Pro Bowler, was asked by a reporter last year to identify the toughest player he's ever had to block. He shot a glance toward Jones' locker and said, 'Can I say Travis?'
'I don't remember anyone stronger than him that I've ever gone against,' Linderbaum said last week. 'The power that he plays with is crazy. If your technique is out of sorts just a little bit, he's going to make you pay. That's just how strong he is. We see it every single day in practice. Sometimes he's almost unblockable with the things that he's able to do.'
Jones was dismissive of a question about whether the upcoming season could be his best yet. He said all he cares about is helping the Ravens win games, and he understands that means doing a lot of the dirty work that doesn't show up statistically.
Believe it or not, he said he's hoping to be more vocal with his teammates. Jones broke down the huddle after an offseason practice and wants to be more comfortable the next time he's asked to do it.
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Otherwise, he had no interest in looking back or playing the 'what if?' game. He doesn't wonder if his career would have been different if he had gone to a perennial football powerhouse rather than UConn. He doesn't think about how last season could have been different if he hadn't sustained a high ankle sprain while in the middle of the best stretch of his career.
He also didn't want to look ahead and talk about his contract status. Jones is entering the final guaranteed season of his rookie deal.
'The last thing on my mind right now,' Jones said.
With other players, that would be hard to believe. With Jones, who says his hobbies are watching the occasional movie/show and working out, it isn't.
Acquavita remembers taking Jones and Warren out to dinner a week before the 2022 NFL Draft. Given an opportunity to pick the place, Jones chose a $10 per plate barbecue joint. While there, Acquavita told Jones how much his life was about to change.
'I said, 'Travis, next week, you're going to be a millionaire,'' Acquavita said. 'He was so innocent about it. He had no idea what was coming down the pike, and he didn't care. It was like, 'I get to play football? I'd do it for a couple of pizzas and maybe a car so I can make it to practice.'
'I've been doing this for a while, and I've only coached three or four players who love everything about football. Travis is one of them. He just loves being a football player.'
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