The updated depth chart that the Pittsburgh Steelers released Tuesday morning revealed that veteran return man Jacoby Jones has been demoted in favor of Markus Wheaton and Antonio Brown. During his Tuesday press conference, head coach Mike Tomlin was asked to explain Jones’ current status with the team following that move.
“I think the depth chart clearly reflects that he’s a backup this week,” said Tomlin of Jones, who was benched in the first half of Sunday night’s win over the Indianapolis Colts because of fumbling issues. “We’ll proceed with that in mind as we prepare. We’ll get Markus Wheaton ready to return kicks and Antonio Brown and Markus Wheaton as punt returners and we’ll see where that takes us.”
Tomlin didn’t give any indication as to whether or not Jones would be waived on Tuesday so we’ll have to wait and see how the rest of the afternoon plays out in that regard. If a move with Jones is to be made, it would likely take place before 4 p.m. EST as that’s when Week 14 officially gets underway.
Now that Jones has been benched and subsequently demoted, he has no value to the team whatsoever. In other words, you can expect him to be one of the team’s seven inactives Sunday against the Cincinnati Bengals if he’s still on the roster by then.
