Prior to the start of the season, Washington Redskins running back Matt Jones was viewed as the team’s bonafide starter. He may not have had the pedigree of a starting NFL running back, but he was nonetheless the Redskins’ top option.
But over the last few weeks, Jones seemed to slowly fade out of the Redskins’ offense — an exit that seemed centered around his issues holding on to the football. This season, Jones has three fumbles, a number that does not include the mishandled handoffs he’s been involved with, though that, too, has happened a few times. Those three fumbles, however, tie Jones for first among NFL running backs for the most in the league. That’s as many fumbles as Cowboys running back Ezekiel Elliott, who has 114 more touches than Jones this year.
Fumbling’s been an ongoing issue with Jones. In his rookie season last year, Jones was credited with five fumbles, good for the fourth-highest among running backs for the season.
Coach Jay Gruden hinted after the Redskins loss to the Detroit Lions that this issue needed to come to an end.
“We can’t keep addressing [Jones’ fumbling] though,” Gruden said after the game. “He’s got to understand the importance of the ball.”
The following week, Jones was off the roster against the Cincinnati Bengals with a knee injury.
That paved the way for rookie running back Robert Kelley to take command of Washington’s rushing attack. Against Cincinnati, Kelley racked up 87 yards on 21 carries, including a rushing touchdown.
For the Redskins’ preparation against the Minnesota Vikings, Matt Jones knee was healed and he took part in practice. But when the roster was announced for the game, Jones was ruled inactive, making him a healthy scratch as Gruden rolled with Kelley, Chris Thompson and Mack Brown as his three running backs.
The decision proved to be beneficiary. Kelley again led a rushing attack that poked holes in an iron-clad Vikings rush defense, gaining 97 yards on 22 carries. Thompson added another 25 yards on the ground, and, despite having their top offensive lineman out of the lineup in Trent Williams, the Redskins gained 128 yards on the ground on just 28 carries. That’s an average of 4.6 yards per carry on a defense that allowed just 4 yards per attempt.
Kelley has put himself in a position where he can’t be taken out of the lineup. Not only is Kelley putting up big numbers, he’s not making critical mistakes in the process — namely, he’s not fumbling the ball.
“The first thing you have to like about Robert is there aren’t many negative plays with Robert,” Gruden said. “I think he had one negative play (against Minnesota). There were other plays where it looked like there was nothing there and all of the sudden, second and seven. And those are huge. You stay on track as a play caller and it makes the game flow a lot smoother when you’re in second and seven, second and six, second and five, and that’s a great tribute to him. He’s a hard runner. I think he was more patient this week than he was last week. Ninety-seven yards against an excellent defense is a great stat for him and a great tribute to his running style.”
With Kelley playing as the yardage workhorse and Thompson as the change-of-pace receiving back, Gruden now has to weigh his options as to whether or not he wants to work Jones back into the offense and take out Brown, who has been utilized as a special teams player, or keep Brown in and scratch Jones.
Gruden will make that decision on a week-to-week basis. He understands that Jones is a young, promising back. Outside of his issues with ball control, Jones has been stellar, averaging 4.6 yards per carry this season, just 0.2 fewer yards per carry than Kelley. However, Gruden is also satisfied with Brown’s special teams play, sees the importance of the position and believes Brown himself has some potential.
“Yeah, it’s difficult,” Gruden said. “Like I said, Mack Brown did a nice job on special teams and he was our third back [Sunday] because of that. Moving forward, we’ll just have to make that determination every week. You know, we’re not giving up on Matt. He’s a part of this football team, without a doubt, but on game day when you can only dress three running backs — we only do dress three running backs — the third one we would like to have some impact on special teams if we can. That’s not always going to be the case, week-to-week basis. Sometimes we may not need our third running back to be on special teams, we can get Matt up, so we just have to keep working with those guys. They’re both young football players, both very talented, and we like what we see in both of them but we have to make a decision every week and that will be week-to-week.”
That’s not encouraging for Jones, and it no longer appears that he has a consistent role within the Redskins’ offense. And, it’s understandable. With the way the Redskins have found success over the last two games in the run game, Jones may now be on the outside looking in.
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