ORCHARD PARK — When you’re a second-round draft pick, coming off a college career where you set the all-time record for most pass receptions – yes, all-time, which covers about 150 years of college football – there’s a certain level of expectation that follows you into the NFL.

In 2017, wide receiver Zay Jones fell far below the lofty expectations that were placed on his narrow shoulders.

When he caught only 27 passes on 74 targets for 316 yards and two touchdowns in his rookie season with the Buffalo Bills, it wasn’t a good look. Not for him, and not for coach Sean McDermott who, despite the presence in the draft room of soon-to-be fired general manager Doug Whaley, was calling the shots.

To be fair, Jones' disappointing production was due in some measure to a shoulder injury he suffered early in 2017. And then Jones experienced an awful mid-March night in a Los Angeles residential complex that, he has insinuated on social media, could have cost him his life.

Caught on video naked and running around in a highly agitated state, Jones smashed at least one window which created a bloody mess, and he was ultimately arrested on a charge of felony vandalism, spending 24 hours in police custody.

Though he has never publicly discussed what happened that night, he has made references to the fact that if not for his older brother, Cayleb, who was on site and eventually calmed Zay down, he may have died.

In an Instagram post on March 30, Cayleb wished Zay a happy 23rd birthday, and in the comments section, Zay responded, “Without you, I wouldn’t be here. You literally saved my life, Cayleb. Nobody will understand what happened, but as long as I have you I could care less. You’ve always had my back. Since day 1. True definition of my brothers’ keeper, ‘til the end.”

Yeah, it was quite a 16-month period between being picked 37th overall in the NFL Draft, to having a rough first season on the field, to two off-season surgeries, to getting arrested, to missing all of the Bills’ off-season program as he tried to get his body and mind right.

All of which makes what has happened in the four months since he finally returned to the team in training camp at St. John Fisher College a truly feel-good story.

“I think what you’ve seen with Zay is what I’ve seen,” McDermott said recently. “You’ve seen a young man that went through some adversity last season and last off-season and he stuck with it. He continued to work at it on and off the field. When you watch Zay practice, you guys are out there, he practices in a way that allows him to have success or gives him a chance to have success on Sunday. That’s a great lesson for a lot of our young guys that we have out there.”

Jones has made a quantum leap on the field, showing why the Bills thought so highly of him in the draft. He leads the team with 41 receptions for 459 yards and four touchdowns, establishing himself as the primary receiving threat long before the Bills dumped Kelvin Benjamin on Tuesday.

Wednesday, Jones was surrounded by reporters in the locker room because three days earlier, he’d enjoyed a breakout-type game, but also, with Benjamin gone, Jones is now the de facto head honcho in the receivers’ meeting room.

In Miami he caught four passes for 67 yards and two touchdowns, he scored on a two-point conversion pass, and he could have had a third TD if he and Josh Allen hadn’t had a miscommunication after Jones had worked himself open in the end zone.

“Just trying to improve my game as the weeks go by, days go by,” Jones said. “Now getting some results from it so it’s promising and it’s good to see. I think last year has given me that opportunity to have experience, both highs and lows, (to go) through things and through changes.”

The incident in Los Angeles notwithstanding, Jones is mature beyond his years. He is a thoughtful conversationalist, a fun kid to be around, someone who was clearly raised to have respect for others, and a player who despite only 1½ years in the NFL seems to understand how things work.

Of course, it helps that his father, Robert, played several years with the Dallas Cowboys in the 1990s, Cayleb has also played in the NFL, and his younger brother, Levi, is currently playing at USC and may also have an NFL future.

Football is sort of the family business, and Jones brings a professionalism that is rare in someone so young.

“I think with Zay, he understands,” said safety Micah Hyde. “There’s guys in the league that get it, there’s guys that don’t, and he’s one of the guys who gets it. Not much needed to be said (when he returned to the team). His work ethic picked up after the off-season he had, and he’s still working that way, so it’s good to see. Year one to year two is when you make your biggest jump and he’s doing that so far.”

About year one. Jones admits he should have caught more passes and gained more yards, but his overall performance wasn’t as bad as some think.

“Everyone wants to talk about the struggles I had, which is fine,” he said. “I know I struggled in some areas. So, we can take the narrative and say I played terribly, and people can say that which is cool with me. But there’s a lot of things that I did really well without the ball, very efficient things that are being pointed out this year that really weren’t necessarily pointed out last year because of drops and things like that.”

For example, general manager Brandon Beane pointed out that two weeks ago, Jones did not have a catch in the victory over Jacksonville. Certainly not ideal, especially since it was Allen’s first game back and the Bills really need Allen and Jones to become a productive tandem. But …

“He had two big blocks,” Beane said, “and both of those we ended up driving for a touchdown. One of them was a touchdown play (the jet sweep by Isaiah McKenzie on which Jones delivered the key block). That’s the great thing about Zay, he’s unselfish. If he needs to catch 10 balls he can, and if he needs to make three or four blocks to spring somebody else, he’ll do it.”

Beane wasn’t with the Bills when Jones was drafted in 2017. He started work a few weeks later, but he knew of Jones, and he believes he has a great future in front of him, especially now that the troubles of last year and off-season are behind him.

“Zay was real, we were real, and we’ll keep it at that,” Beane said of the talk they had following the arrest. “He’s a great kid, he works hard, he wants to be great. He does all the things off the field that gives him the best chance on the field to be great and that’s all you can ask.”

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Jones is never going to be a No. 1 receiver for a team. He doesn’t have the dynamic big-play ability that the best ones have. What he is, is a solid No. 2-type who runs precise routes and can move the chains, and if the Bills land a No. 1-caliber receiver next year, Jones will only blossom further.

“Everyone expected 400 catches from me last year and that didn’t happen for me,” he said with a smile. “Now that I’m doing things better, so to speak, it’s how have you done it and how has it happened? It just comes with experience, in time on task, and playing and having a better feel. Sometimes, people (say), ‘Oh, he’s bad last year, he’s good this year.’ To the coaching staff and the people who have seen me play and seeing what I bring to the table, they’ve seen a lot of consistency in me, so that’s what I’m just trying to build is just consistency whether it’s catching, blocking or hustling.”

MAIORANA@Gannett.com