James Jones played just 19 snaps in Thursday's game against the New Orleans Saints, catching the only pass that was thrown his way for a 1-yard gain. The 'jumbo' package is primarily a running formation containing WR, RB and 3TE or WR, FB, RB and 2TE. James Jones feels "maybe that was a game-time decision to put me in and give me some playing time."
James Jones isn't particularly upset with only having one ball thrown his way because he understands “Aaron’s got his hands full." and continued on to say "We’ve got a lot of weapons. It’d be stupid for me to come up to Aaron and tell him I’m open. Every receiver’s going to say they’re open on every play even when they’re covered. I don’t bother Aaron. Aaron throws to the open guy. He’s been good throwing to the open guy. Aaron doesn’t tell me to sub into the game. So if I’m not in the game, he can’t throw it to me on the sideline.”
According to James Jones, it sounds more like he simply wants to be on the field more often. "Yeah, I don’t care about (t)he ball at all, but I truly want to be in the game plan, everybody plays this game because they want to be playing. I’m not selfish. I understand we have a lot of weapons. I’m not saying I want the ball every play. But I think I deserve to be on the field more than I was."
James Jones also added "At the end of the day, we won the ballgame, that’s the main focus. Do I want to be more involved? No doubt. Who wouldn’t? But it is what it is, it bothered me a little bit because I want to be involved. I’m a competitor. I want to be involved; I want to be able to help my team win. But at the end of the day, we’ve got a lot of weapons, the ball just didn’t come my way. Hopefully that changes. That’s all I can say. Practice hard and hopefully it changes."
When asked if the team had chosen a number 3 WR; James Jones responded with "Yeah, you’ve seen the film. You know who’s No. 3. Me and Cobb are slash 4 and 5."
As of now, James Jones does not regret signing the 3 year contract for $9.6 million this past August, however this may change if he continues to get less than two dozen snaps a game.