File that under things that make you go “hmmmm.” One day after playing the Pittsburgh Steelers, the Jacksonville Jaguars announced they released QB Landry Jones.
Jones failed to appear in a game after being signed to the roster on October 31st after Blake Bortles suffered a shoulder injury.
For the first time in Jones’ career, fans thought he was the wrong quarterback to be cut.
You released the wrong qb. Jones would have made the throw on 3rd & 5 or hit dj chark to move the chains.
— Dino (@da_dyno) November 19, 2018
Wrong QB
— Jagewires tbh (@MeriRigorous) November 19, 2018
Jaguars’ head coach Doug Marrone confirmed Bortles will start this weekend the Buffalo Bills. Jacksonville was clearly scared to use him in Sunday’s loss, throwing only 18 times, running draw plays on 3rd and long, and handing the ball off on 3rd and 5 with the game on the line. Jacksonville was stuffed, forced to punt, and the Steelers won the game.
Given the timing, there’s plenty of speculation Jones was, in part, used for “Intel” to get ready for the Steelers game. Maybe that’s a half-truth, Jones was signed weeks ago, not prior to the Steelers game. But it’s a tactic that does exist in the NFL. From a New York Times article in 2008 that broached the subject.
“The former N.F.L. player Marcellus Wiley, now an ESPN analyst, said that he was on a team that acquired a player who had been with the Colts. The player was asked what certain words in the Colts’ signals meant.”
It may be subtle, it may not help a lot, after all, it’s all on tape, but it certainly doesn’t hurt to have a guy like that on your team.
Jacksonville will roll on with just two quarterbacks on the roster in Bortles and Cody Kessler. Jones, meanwhile, will try to latch on with a new time to finish out the season. It won’t be Washington, who held tryouts today and signed Mark Sanchez to replace Alex Smith, whose season ended Sunday.
