A week ago at this time, the Raiders were reeling after getting pummeled by the Panthers. Immediately following the game, head coach Antonio Pierce said some of his players made “business decisions” and said he would need to make some business decisions of his own in response.
At the time everyone was left to wonder just who he was talking about.
Soon a clip of Jack Jones deciding not to tackle a Panthers running back on a play was circulating and the finger of suspicion was pointed at him.
It made some sense considering after the game, myself and several others stood at his locker after he was finished dressing to ask him some questions and he just walked away, seemingly hoping to avoid the inevitable questions he didn’t want to have to answer.
Sunday in the game against the Browns, it was immediately apparent the business decision was to bench him.
The Raiders instead went with five defensive linemen and two cornerbacks early. And after the game, Pierce admitted that was his business decision.
Some in the media managed to track down Jones after the game this time to ask him about it, including ESPN’s Paul Gutierrez.
#Raiders coach Antonio Pierce, on CB Jack Jones sitting 1st quarter: “Yeah, that was my decision. That’s between me and Jack.”
Jones:”That’s ball. I mean, if I’m not up, I’m not up. If I’m up, I’ve got to play…that’s something you got to talk to AP about, man. I’m the player.”— Paul Gutierrez (@PGutierrezESPN) September 30, 2024
While we won’t know until the snap counts come out, it didn’t appear as if Jones played much in the early going. What you hope is that he will take this the right way from his college and high school coach who wants the best for him and won’t let him slack.
Jones needs to remember that he’s the starter on this team because he replaced Marcus Peters for doing the very thing he did in that game — shying away from tackling. It’s part of the job and Pierce won’t stand for anything but maximum effort in that area.