This story appears in ESPN The Magazine's September 19 NFL Preview II Issue. Subscribe today!

INSIDE CINCINNATI'S DARK dark and deserted players' cafeteria, Adam Jones chuckles to himself as the rest of the Bengals joyously fly toward the stadium exits, free from another grueling session in the dog days of training camp. Jones, a first-round draft pick by Tennessee in 2005, insists he's finally content right here -- alone, out of the spotlight, talking football. At 32, he has matured from the player who was suspended for the entire 2007 season after repeated off-the-field issues, including involvement in a shooting outside of a Las Vegas strip club. Now Jones is a Pro Bowl cornerback and an enthusiastic student of the game -- a trait on full display in the cafeteria. Minutes after sitting down, he shed his backpack and collected two fistfuls of a visitor's shirt to illustrate a point about press coverage. By the end of the afternoon, his hands-on lecture revealed exactly how NFL offenses, and Jones himself, have evolved.

THE MAG: Take us back to your rookie year. What did offenses look like in 2005?

JONES: It was power football -- fullbacks and running backs and tight ends who blocked. In 2005, corners had to tackle. If you wouldn't tackle, you wouldn't play. Now you see lots of quick stuff, spread, West Coast, lots of on-the-ball, no-huddle. When I started, Peyton Manning was about the only one doing what every QB is doing now: going to the line, reading the defense and checking out of plays. His approach was probably the biggest thing that changed for offenses. The smart QB. The studying QB. The QB who can read when the safety is creeping down or see that the linebacker is a little more outside and switch to a better play. It's all about getting that last chess move before the snap.

So what would an old base offensive formation from 2005 look like?

It's called Ace: two wide receivers, a fullback, a running back. [See below.] You'd have a tight end blocking. Tight splits on the line. QB under center. There'd be a big power back like Jerome Bettis behind an even bigger fullback.

And now?

The fullback -- poof -- gone. The whole league is moving away from power football. So no fullback, no big back, and the tight end won't be a big-ass slow guy close to the line; he'll be running like a receiver. Add three-, four-wide to the picture, linemen spread out, more zone-blocking, pass-blocking, QB in shotgun, ball out quick.

If I had to pick one thing to show the offensive evolution, I'd go with tight ends.

When I got drafted, Antonio Gates was the only tight end running like a wide receiver. Now every goddamn tight end is running like hell -- and fast as hell. [See below.] That's a big, big difference. That's the biggest mismatch going. If you got a good No. 1 receiver and a good tight end, it makes it really hard. You can't double both. So pick your poison.

What else has changed?

Just today we watched film off and on from 7 a.m. until 5:30. We practiced for maybe two hours. So that should tell you how much of a mental game this is now. Lots of kids are coming into the NFL dumb as hell and they can't pick up a defense. With what we face from offenses, you have to be able to check out of three calls in a few seconds before every play. If the receivers are lined up two-by-two, we're playing this coverage -- wait, nope, now they shifted to three-by-one, now we're playing another call. If I had a son and he was gifted like me at football, the main thing I would stress to him is the mental aspect of the game.

Give me an example.

OK, so when I'm in press coverage in a cover 3 and I know the safety or the linebacker is down toward the line of scrimmage and I have help on the inside, I know if my guy releases outside, he can only run two routes. What's he gonna run?

Me? I like a fly route.

Uh-huh, a go route, yep.

Or a curl.

A comeback, yep. See, before the ball is even snapped, I've already eliminated the rest of the playbook. Now you can spread the field, play four wides, get the ball out fast, go no-huddle; doesn't matter, I've taken the advantage back. Offenses move so fast -- if you're out there thinking in the middle of a play, it's too late.

Problem is, whenever defenses start to dominate offenses, they change the rules to protect the golden goose.

So many rules now. You just have to hone your craft even more because the whole thing is set up for me not to be good. My mentality now is so different than it used to be. I'm walking up in press coverage and I'm thinking to myself, "I gotta guard this guy within the rules." I know if I even touch him after 6, 7 yards downfield they're gonna flag me. It makes you focus on little stuff. Focus on your feet at the line -- that's how you have to win the route, by being in good position. I used to go up, quick-jam the guy, keep my hands on him and then wait and feel and turn when he turned. Can't do that now. Focusing on the little stuff is the biggest change in how I play.

Seems like your approach with everything has changed.

I look at when I first came out, dumb as bricks. Now every day I'm calling out plays in practice to the point where linebacker Vincent Rey says, "Man, you must have a cheat sheet in your pocket!" When you're young, you take a lot of stuff for granted. There was a point in my life where I wasn't even thinking about a future even existing like this for me. When you're the laughingstock of the league and you just got kicked out of the league, those are some dark times. But I always told myself, "I'm gonna get the last laugh." Every day I still make a point to visit my past, all the dumb s--- I did. I have to. It's easy to slip up. If you don't remind yourself, you're gonna wind up right back in those situations.