Some news and notes for this morning:
Could Jack Jones Play in 2023?
As Jack Jones reportedly gets set to be arraigned today in Massachusetts, looking at past player situations, the possibility exists that Jones could, in fact, suit up for the New England Patriots this season.
The NFL Network’s Ian Rapoport appeared on the Pat McAfee show on Monday and discussed Jones’ situation, and he pointed out that given the amount of time this may take to play out from a legal standpoint, it’s possible that Jones could be on the field for the club in 2023.
“I read all the charges, there’s a lot of them,” said Rapoport. “Now it’s possible timing-wise, this is pushed a little bit. The legal system plays out in forever, so it’s possible he could play this year. But this is bad, and this is not a football issue.”
Rapoport believes that barring a move by the team, while Commissioner Roger Goodell could theoretically make a move to keep Jones sidelined, he doesn’t believe anything is coming to prevent Jones from seeing time.
“Obviously, if he goes to jail, then it’s a matter of, do the Patriots keep him or not? That’s sort of the football-related part of it,” said Rapoport. “Does Roger Goodell step in and put him on the commissioner’s exempt list, which he does the ability to do? He can sort of make the decision that this is one where a player should be set aside.”
“It is not a, thankfully, a violent crime. This wouldn’t necessarily fit in the category of going on the commissioner’s exempt list. But he could theoretically decide to do it. Or the Patriots could just say, “we do not want to see ‘Patriots corner’ everytime they discuss this … we’re done. There’s a lot of decisions that have to be made here.”
Kamara Situation A Recent Example
Rapoport cited the most recent example having played out with New Orleans Saints running back Alvin Kamara. Kamara was recently indicted back in February on two criminal charges from an incident in 2022 where he allegedly was part of a violent assault of someone in a nightclub last February in Las Vegas.
Kamara played in 15 games in 2022, carrying 223 times for 897-yards and two touchdowns.
Now that things appear to be moving forward, Rapoport believes that a suspension from the league could also be coming this season.
With Jones, obviously his situation is different. There wasn’t any violence associated with what happened Friday, which is far cry with what happened with Kamara as his victim suffered suffered multiple serious injuries, including an orbital fracture on his right eye.
Jones’ incident was clearly just bad judgement and a gross oversight, which certainly now has him in quite a bit of trouble.
Rapoport admitted that he doesn’t know if the second-year corner out of Arizona State will get out of it unscathed, but added it’s not an NFL issue.
“I do not know that he gets out of this,” said Rapoport. “It’s not good. He’s a NFL player, and he is a really good player, a really versatile player, good young talent on what should be a really, really, good Patriots defense. This is not an NFL issue. There is, and I’m not 100% clear either, but I have someone who I believe should know, say that there is a mandatory sentence involved with this. I believe 18 months and I don’t know … these are all charges, obviously and we should say that. We do not know what he did, who did what … I mean, there’s been plenty of times we’ve seen the report and it comes out later and it’s different.”
In the meantime, unless the Patriots decide to part ways with him, all this means is that Jones could very well be a factor on defense this season.
The last example was when they stuck by former defensive back Alfonzo Dennard, who was charged with his own crime for assualting an officer in 2012 and played for the club as that process played out, all the way up until he finally served jail time in early 2014. He was only released due to an injury he suffered during that 2014 campaign.
We’ll see if Belichick provides Jones with the same leeway as all of this continues to play out.
Club ‘Livid’ With Jones
As for how the team apparently feels about the situation, it sounds like they’re extremely upset.
According to the Athletic’s Jeff Howe, who appeared on 98.5 The Sports Hub’s Toucher and Rich on Tuesday, the team is ‘livid’ about the allegations and Howe believes Jones’ time with the team could be in jeopardy.
“Legally, we’ll start with the Patriots,” said Howe as transcribed by the station. “I mean, the team is understandably and obviously livid over the situation. Putting himself in a position like this is at any time of year, But really like after breaking minicamp and all that stuff, it’s just… they’re livid.”
“Moving over to the legal side, just from conversations I had with some friends who are much smarter with that stuff than I am… Looking at the charges and kind of breaking down what he’s facing. I mean, if he’s convicted, he’s looking at a mandatory 18-month sentence and there’s a likelihood of a two-year enhancement on that 18 months because the weapons were allegedly loaded.”
“Just right off the bat, there’s a strong possibility that if convicted, he’s looking at a minimum of three and a half years. You bring that back over to the team side. Everything that Robert Kraft has done since Aaron Hernandez. I would be very, very surprised if he were a patriot much longer.”
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Ian Logue is a Seacoast native and owner and senior writer for PatsFans.com, an independent media site covering the New England Patriots and has been running this site in one form or another since 1997.
