While the entire Steelers’ Nation would like to see him gone, we should find out the teams plans for Jacoby Jones today. By Tuesday at 4 PM each week, every player on a roster is guaranteed their upcoming Sunday game check, even if they aren’t on the roster by Sunday. Meaning, most players get released by today.
Jones has already been publicly demoted as the team’s return man and now without a role, seems certain to be released. Jones struggled mightily in the few short weeks he was here. A veteran struggling with the basics of securing the football and producing, at best, one decent kick return.
The final nail came Sunday night after nearly fumbling away a punt after losing the opening kickoff of the game. It prompted Mike Tomlin to tell NBC at halftime that Jones was “done” for the day.
Now, he looks to be done for his Pittsburgh Steelers’ career.
If Jones is released, it’ll mark the second team this season to part ways with the 31 year old returner. The Steelers claimed him off waivers from the San Diego Chargers after Jones struggled just as much and additionally, dealt with injury.
The Steelers wanted to shake up their kick return unit, bringing Jones in. And I get it – they weren’t totally pleased with the performance of it with Dri Archer and hey, they shouldn’t have been. The group needed to get a lot better. But Archer was improving, the blocking was showing signs of general progression, until that awful game against the Cincinnati Bengals. The one where Archer was tackled prior to the 20 twice, prompting the swift reaction of releasing him to sign Jones. It bumped Antonio Brown off punt returns in the process.
So let’s recap. Release a second-year, third round pick that was getting better, remove an electric punt returner from his duties, and get a negative return.
Of all the calculated risks, this might have been Tomlin’s biggest blunder.
So watch that clock. By 4 PM, we should know exactly what the Steelers want to do with Jacoby Jones.
