James Jones Motivated, Wants to Finish Career in Green Bay

James Jones had a hell of a debut for the Green Bay Packers in his second tour of duty with the team, catching two touchdowns in the team’s win over the Chicago Bears. Jones looked great less than a week after being re-signed and that could be because he’s motivated.

That will happen when you get released by two teams in five months, as Jones did by the Raiders (in May) and the Giants (about two weeks ago). Regardless of what those teams think, Jones obviously thinks he can still play and is hell bent on proving it.

“I’m extremely, extremely motivated, more than I have ever been, right now. Not only to show the teams that released me that I have a lot of football left, but to show myself, that you still have a lot to give and you have a lot of football left. That’s my main motivation right now, to show people that I can still play this game at a very high level and still can help a ball club win,” Jones told The MMQB.

He also takes issue with what became a refrain throughout the offseason — that he’s lost a step.

The primary reason behind that thinking was that Jones averaged less than 10 yards per reception in 2014. He likes to point to his career-high 73 receptions instead, as well as his league-leading 14 touchdowns in 2012, when he was with the Packers.

Jones goes on to say he wants to finish his career with the Packers, although we knew that to be the case when the organization decided to let him walk as a free agent following the 2013 season.

If he doesn’t play with the Packers in 2016, he’s going to try to find another team he can play with.

“I would love to play the rest of my career here in Green Bay,” Jones said. “I tell Mike McCarthy and Ted Thompson that I don’t know why they let me go in the first place. I would love to finish off my career here, whether that is three or four years from now, and finish it off here playing for the Green Bay Packers. Hopefully I have a good enough year where they say, hey, let’s re-sign this guy and let him finish his career out here. But if not, I feel like I still have some years left in me to play, so we’ll see how it goes. But I’m focused on making this season one of the best.”

The reality is Jones is going to have to have a great season if he wants to stick around.

He’s currently playing on a bargain-basement one-year deal.

When Jordy Nelson returns in 2016, the Packers will have their top four receivers set with Nelson, Randall Cobb, Davante Adams and Ty Montgomery. That kind of makes Jones a luxury item.

But hell, he’s on pace for 32 touchdowns at the moment. That number is obviously totally unrealistic, but double digits in that category and 800-plus yards would make it hard for the Packers to let Jones walk again.