A pair of former Baldwin County standouts found themselves new jobs in the National Football League recently.

Foley’s Julio Jones signed a contract with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers entering his 12th year playing in the league and Daphne’s Pat White was hired as an offensive assistant on the Los Angeles Chargers’ coaching staff.

Jones is fresh off a lone season with the Tennessee Titans after 10 years with the Atlanta Falcons, where he did plenty of damage against the Bucs. Nobody has more catches, receiving yards or touchdowns against Tampa Bay than the former Foley Lion and Alabama Crimson Tide receiver.

Jones was signed to a one-year, $6 million contract entering his age-33 season although his quarterback, Tom Brady, turned 45 years old Aug. 3. He said both playing with Brady and the proximity to home brought him to the Buccaneers.

“It’s next door; I’m from Alabama, played in Georgia, it’s right here,” Jones said at his introductory press conference July 27. “My family can come see me and not have to go out of their way but just having the ability to come out here and work to bring what I can to the team.”

For White, his coaching journey leads him back to the professional ranks although it is a familiar landing spot.

Having spent the 2021 training camp with the Chargers as part of the Bill Walsh Diversity Coaching Fellowship, the Los Angeles coaching staff offered to make White a full-time member of its team before this year’s training camps opened.

A league-wide effort to increase the number of full-time NFL minority coaches, the fellowship allows applicants – who must have either played in the NFL or have coaching experience at the high school, college or professional level – an opportunity to coach with a team through camps and offseason programs.

White was the quarterbacks coach at Campbell University when he was hired by the Chargers after four years of coaching offense at other colleges. He started as quarterbacks coach at Alcorn State in 2018 and 2019, became the running backs coach at South Florida for the 2020 season before he returned to coaching quarterbacks at Alabama State in 2021.