WASHINGTON (DC News Now) — In their Morgan State college dorm in the mid-1990’s, Daronte Jones and Melvin Coleman stayed busy.

“We did a lot of battles in Madden,” Coleman told DC News Now. “I’d be in the bed asleep it would be a Saturday and [Daronte] would walk and grab the controller and put the controller by my bed and soon I’d wake up and he’d jump back in like I don’t see him and be like, ‘oh so what you calling me out?”

In January, three decades after his Madden battles as a college football player with his roommate, and many professional and college football coaching stops, Jones has been hired as the Washington Commanders new defensive coordinator.

For Jones – it’s a homecoming. He hails from Prince George’s County, where he attended Bishop McNamara high school in Forestville, Maryland.

It’s not just his college friends and teammates who remember the Madden matchups. His good friend and teammate from Bishop McNamara Mike Jones also took part in the legendary video games matchups – though he didn’t know at the time he was facing a defensive mastermind.

“He’s definitely the reason why I stopped playing Madden,” Mike said. “Cause he’s reading all your plays and this was the time when he was early in his coaching career… I’m like dude I’m playing for leisure.”

During his college career, Daronte suffered a neck injury that kept him off the field. Coleman said Daronte would spend more time in the play calling booth during games and was earning a bigger grasp of the game. He said it showed in Madden too.

“That kind of helped us being coaches and our playing careers were done,” Coleman said. “We learned how to think on the run, think quick, make adjustments quick.”

You could call Daronte’s coaching career the Daronte Jones World Tour.

It started in 2001 as a graduate assistant at Division II Lenoir-Rhyne. Coleman said Daronte conducted an interview with the school before they went on their spring break trip senior year. The following years took Jones to Nicholls State (then Division I-AA) as safeties coach, defensive coordinator jobs at high schools in Louisiana and his first return to the DMV where he served as Bowie State’s assistant head coach and defensive coordinator from 2005 to 2009.

Jones bounced around more after that. He was cornerbacks coach at UCLA in 2010, defensive backs coach for the Montreal Alouettes in the Canadian Football League in 2011, Hawaii’s secondary coach in 2012-14 and Wisconsin’s defensive backs coach in 2015.

Then, Jones made the jump to the NFL — first as the Miami Dolphins assistant defensive backs coach, then the Cincinnati Bengals cornerbacks coach, then the Minnesota Vikings defensive backs coach. After a brief stint as LSU’s defensive coordinator in 2021 where he coached star cornerback Derek Stingley Jr., Jones returned to the Vikings, where he stayed until this offseason.

“For most people who think that this is a person who’s coming out of nowhere, that’s not true,” Mike Jones said. “This guy has been grinding close to over 20 years. He’s been grinding and getting information from the best minds in football.”

For Mike and Coleman, watching Daronte flourish in the football world has been meaningful, but they’ve also seen his growth as a coach.

“Secondary wise, pass defense wise, everywhere he’s gone they’ve gotten better,” Coleman, who is now the safeties coach at Morgan State said. “Somebody is doing well, somebody is probably making the pro bowl. Somebody is probably making all-conference. So the proof is in the work.”

Since 2023, Daronte had worked directly under Brian Flores in Minnesota. Coleman said that Daronte’s coaching influences and style comes from several different legendary coaching trees.

“With him being around [Vic] Fangio, Marvin Lewis, [Mike] Zimmer, Vance Joseph and now Flores,” Coleman said. “He’s got a lot work from them. He got a lot of tape to take from them.”

In recent seasons, with Daronte serving as the team’s defensive backs coach and pass game coordinator, the Vikings’ defense has played aggressively, focusing on trying to force turnovers and blitzing at some of the highest rates in the NFL.

Daronte’s high school teammate Mike Jones, who is now a counselor at Bishop McNamara says the way he played was pretty similar to how his defenses play.

“He was always in the right spot… When we look at those old films when we get together, he pops on film,” Mike said. “He’s always going all out.”

Mike said Daronte earned the nickname “Crow” because “he made crow sounds in the backfield.”

“He would make these crow sounds like he’s lurking in the secondary,” Mike said. “He would take on the biggest person on the team in practice even though he was gonna get knocked down… He’s not scared.”

According to his friends, Daronte’s days at McNamara mean a lot to him. Several years ago, Daronte donated to the Bishop McNamara football program. His contributions provide student athletes with scholarship assistance. Daronte’s name is now etched on a plaque in the McNamara locker room, noted him as a 1996 graduate and that year’s male athlete of the year. Daronte played football, wrestling and track & field at McNamara.

“He’s been able to come back and give back to the community itself in terms of the program and the school,” Bishop McNamara football head coach Greg Calhoun said. “But he’s also been able to take advantage of the opportunities to give back.”

Calhoun told DC News Now that he referenced Daronte as inspiration and motivation for his players and as an example to potential recruits.

“I actually just had a set of recruits come through and we just showed his locker again as we always do,” Calhoun said. “A lot of great coaches out here in the world but for him to be selected for that job and that opportunity in this community, is huge.”

Bishop McNamara plays in one of, if not the best high school football conferences in the country, the WCAC. The Mustangs last won a WCAC championship in 1990. Since, the conference has been dominated by blue blood programs DeMatha, Gonzaga, St. John’s and Good Counsel.

But in 2025, months before Daronte being hired by the Commanders, a few seasons into his tenure in Forestville, Calhoun helped his team take a massive step forward. The Mustangs beat their rival Gonzaga, 21-0 on October 11. Gonzaga was the eventual WCAC runners-up.

The following week, McNamara fell just short to eventual undefeated WCAC champion DeMatha, 12-7. They were one of two teams to come within five points or less of the Stags all season long. It was also DeMatha’s second lowest scoring output of the season.

“We’re not always the first names mentioned in that league,” Mike said. “Now we have something that we can definitely hang our hat on in conversations… Now we have the defensive coordinator of our local team.”

Calhoun believes that an esteemed alum calling plays down the road, could further fuel his players.

“Just knowing that you have somebody of that magnitude at that level kind of puts that pressure on you obviously as the current student in that process, just letting you know you have some big shoes to fill,” Calhoun told DC News Now. “You have some expectations, you have some standards and that’s something that we work to build here in this process and our guys take pride and value in that.”

And while Daronte rises in the football coaching ranks, he’s still a boy from Prince George’s County, Maryland.

“I know growing up, everybody was like DC, DC, DC, but now it’s like PG County,” Coleman said. “We’ve got players, we’ve got ballers, we’ve got good thinkers and I think it’s just you’re proud to represent where you’re from.”

As for what Commanders fans should expects going forward, Coleman said Daronte is “a guy that’s going to be on a mission to be great. To not lose.”

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