Benny Sieu James Jones spent the offseason working on catching deep passes after dropping several balls last season.
Green Bay - When wide receiver James Jones signed a new contract with the Green Bay Packers earlier this month, it did not include any language guaranteeing that he would get the ball thrown his way.
It just doesn't work that way.
But maybe Jones should have got it in writing that the quarterback had to at least acknowledge he was on the field once in a while.
In three preseason games, Jones has caught one pass for 14 yards. In those three games, he has been targeted a grand total of two times, zero in consecutive games against the Arizona Cardinals and Indianapolis Colts.
It's just not possible for a guy who ranked third on the team in receptions during the regular season with 50 and fourth in the postseason with 11 to suddenly lose all his skills. Not when he's a mere 27 years old and in the prime of his career.
"I don't think just because a guy hasn't caught many balls in preseason games would justify saying he's not productive," receivers coach Edgar Bennett said. "That's just not the case based on the things he's been able to show in practice.
"Certainly he's caught a lot of balls on the practice field. So you have to look at everything, from the preseason games to what the guy has done on a consistent basis in practice."
But really, there has to be some conspiracy going on when the guy plays 35 snaps against the Colts and doesn't get one pass thrown his way, right?
"I just didn't get the ball," Jones said. "I do want the ball. At the same time we have a lot of weapons. I'm not saying he (quarterback Aaron Rodgers) is not throwing it to me. Yeah, we had some problems, a couple pressures, a couple sacks, he rolled away from me a couple times. I mean, no big deal."
It may be a bigger deal than Jones is letting on from this angle: Jones is trying to take the next step in his career and sharpening his game in practice is one thing, but doing it against real opponents is another.
Jones spent all off-season working on the catch that eluded him last season - the deep ball along the sideline that he kept dropping. He worked on over-the-shoulder catches with three quarterbacks and vowed to avoid his mistakes this year.
There hasn't been a deep ball thrown him all preseason, and the ones in camp have been few and far between. And if there was hope that he would benefit Thursday night from some added action, that's probably scrapped because he is suffering from a bruised knee.
Jones swore the injury was nothing, but coach Mike McCarthy said Monday that team physician Patrick McKenzie wanted to examine it further before clearing him.
"It's something that happened the year before, something that has re-occurred," McCarthy said. "Talking to James, he feels like he can play in the game, but Dr. McKenzie wants to take a closer look at it. It's the second time it's happened."
The first time it occurred, on his right knee in 2008, Jones missed the season opener, played a game, hurt it again the following week, sat out another week and aggravated in a game the week after that. Finally, he was shut down for three weeks before returning for good after the team's bye.
Given the lack of attention he's gotten in games thus far, it's understandable that he would want to play Thursday night.
It's likely that starters Donald Driver and Greg Jennings will play sparingly against Kansas City, and they may not play at all. That would allow Jordy Nelson and Jones to be the starters and get in at least a full quarter, if not more, with backup Matt Flynn.
Nelson hasn't had a ton of action either, but he has six catches for 71 yards and has been targeted seven times. Mostly, it's rookies like Randall Cobb, Tory Gurley and Kerry Taylor who have been seeing the most action because they have so much to learn.
"You have to have some faith there," offensive coordinator Joe Philbin said of the readiness of Jones. "James has been with us four years; Jordy three years, so there's play time, there's meeting time with us. We haven't changed a whole lot.
"We've added some good things, but we've exposed them to all that. Usually, what we're doing is tweaking. I think they've gotten some good work but there's only so many guys you can get into a game."
Jones, who signed a three-year, $9.6 million contract, said he has no intention of complaining about the number of throws he hasn't gotten this summer and hasn't gone to Bennett to see if he could arrange for a couple of balls to be thrown his way.
He said he makes sure he gets the work he needs in practice and if he gets a pass thrown to him during a game, all the better.
"There's a lot of wideouts, you're not going to have a 10-catch practice," Jones said. "You have to kind of get your balls as they come. One practice you may get seven balls, another practice you may get one. I've caught balls out there, I've gotten into a rhythm.
"I'm not that type of guy (to complain). I just run my routes and make sure I'm open and if he does throw my way, I make sure I'm ready."
Maybe someday soon that day will come.
Source:
No comments:
Post a Comment