[img_r]http://media.jsonline.com/images/199*153/packers15-packers15_-spt_-sieu_-9(2).jpg[/img_r]Green Bay - Until last week, the guy wearing jersey No. 89 for the Green Bay Packers wasn't James Jones.
The muscular body, the facial expression, the big, soft hands might have all looked the same, but this definitely was not the receiver who was ready to take off in his second season with the Packers. This guy was stuck in mud.
"It was my first injury," Jones said Thursday, reflecting on the three most frustrating months of his football career that occurred after suffering an injury to the posterior cruciate ligament in his right knee in an exhibition game Aug. 22. "When I first did my PCL, tore it in Denver, I had gotten up and really wanted to go back in the game, once it loosened up. When you've never been hurt, you think you're not hurt: 'I tore a PCL, I'll be back in a week.'
"I think I tried to come back too fast, and I ended up aggravating it. It was a great learning experience. Hopefully I never have to go through that again."
Sunday against Jacksonville, the real James Jones appeared and caught four passes for 132 yards, his first 100-yard game since Oct. 29 of last year. It took him the better part of the season to get his right knee back to full strength, but he appears to be back.
No longer is there a fear that when his knee hits the ground, the pain will be so great that he won't be able to finish the game. Some of the burst he had at the start of training camp is showing again. He has a lot to make up with just two games left, but he's glad he's at least getting a chance.
"Going into these last two games, I want to play well going into the offseason, knowing I'm healthy and the coaches know I still can make plays for this ballclub and people still know I'm the same James Jones when I'm healthy," Jones said. "That's the main thing. Hopefully, I can go out there and help this team win a couple of ball games."
Jones went to work last offseason determined to build himself up after fading in the final weeks of his rookie season, catching just seven passes in the last six games after totaling 40 in the first 12. When training camp began, he clearly took hold of the No. 3 spot and was getting almost as much action as starters Donald Driver and Greg Jennings.
Then, in the second quarter of the exhibition game against Denver, Jones caught a short pass, bulled forward for extra yards and fell under the weight of the four defenders it took to bring him down. He bounced up and continued playing into the third quarter before the knee pain finally got to him.
It turned out he had torn the posterior cruciate ligament, which is the ligament behind the knee that keeps the tibia (lower leg bone) and femur (upper leg bone) from shifting too far backward. When the ligament is torn, the stability of the knee is compromised.
Jones came back in three weeks and caught four passes for 29 yards and a touchdown against Detroit, but the next week he banged his knee on the ground against Dallas and was unable to continue. He sat out a week and then returned against Atlanta, but the same thing happened to him again and he couldn't finish.
It happened to him one more time, against Chicago Nov. 16, and he missed another game the next week.
The way it was explained to Jones, the weakness of the PCL was allowing the two bones to shift rather than bow backward naturally. Every time he hit his knee on the ground, the bones would move, causing him a lot of pain and delivering a setback.
"You go out there and practice the whole week and you think you're finally healthy and then you bump it one time in a game, it sort of sets you back a little bit," Jones said. "It was frustrating. It's something I had to fight through this year, and I'm through it now and over the hump, and I just want to go out and help the team win these next two games."
The Packers have missed the 6-foot-1, 218-pound Jones' size on underneath routes. He has had some problems with dropped balls in the past but he was a good target for slant routes because he could use his big frame to shield off defenders.
Rookie Jordy Nelson has benefited from Jones' absence, but Nelson is in the same place Jones was last year, a novice in a complicated offense still learning the ins and outs of reading defenses and understanding the Packers' scheme. Jones made gains in those areas during the offseason, only to see his year derailed by the knee injury.
"He's a gifted receiver, as far as his strength levels and so forth, and really was off to a great start in training camp," coach Mike McCarthy said. "We felt that he was one of our most improved young players from Year 1 to Year 2."
Jones had a hard time accepting that he wasn't healthy enough to add something to the team and clearly was miffed to be inactive against New Orleans. The last three weeks, he has been on the active roster on game day, and after catching a pair of passes in both the Carolina and Houston games, played well against the Jaguars.
Jones still has to work on catching the ball cleanly - his 40-yard catch in the second quarter was almost nullified because he bobbled the ball - and continue to strengthen his knee. He'll have plenty of time to work on both in the offseason, but for now he wants to play.
"You have to play the hand you're dealt," Jones said. "Sometimes you're dealt 21, sometimes you're dealt 15 and don't know whether to hit it. I think that's what I was dealt this year. Hopefully, these last two games come out all right."