FanPost

Why Thomas Jones Should No Longer Have His Current Role

 

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via cdn.bleacherreport.net


The homers on here have defended this guy more than any other player who has been a member of the Kansas City Chiefs in maybe the past 5 years. Too many AP'ers are filled with horrible arguments on why Thomas Jones should be a member of the team this year, and why it wasn't inane for him to get more carries than Jamaal Charles last year. Let's look at the 2 most common arguments in favor of Thomas Jones on arrowheadpride.com and analyze the validity of those arguments.

 

"He's the bruiser, he moves the pile, and softens(ed) up defenses for Jamaal Charles"

Well for starters, he can't move the pile if he isn't effective on 3rd and short. He can't soften up the defenses when he is constantly getting gang tackled because he can't get to the hole quick enough. And he can't be a bruiser if he doesn't break any tackles. To show you how wrong of a statement that is, I present to you the DVOA statistic created by Football Outsiders. The DVOA statistic was used to determine "the percentage of plays in which a back gained the necessary yardage for a first-down conversion on third down"...and Jones was below average to say the least.

Jones on 3rd downs via Yahoo Sports and Football Outsiders using the DVOA statistic: 

"At FO, we've long been on Kansas City head coach Todd Haley's back to have him get Charles more involved in the offense, and we're not the only ones. Haley's familiar claim that Charles isn't a consistent third-down back may be true from a blocking perspective, but it certainly isn't true from a production perspective, especially in contrast to Thomas Jones, who put up a minus-30.9% DVOA, and a 42% Success Rate in those similar situations."

Jamaal Charles' stats that they were referring to by the way: 24.6% DVOA (30 carries, 155 yards, 43% Success Rate)

 

Jones broken tackle statistics via Football Outsiders........

Most Broken Tackles, 2010 RB

Player

Team

BT

Runs

Rec

Touches

BT/Touch

23-A.Foster

HOU

45

325

68

393

11.5%

28-C.Johnson

TEN

41

316

44

360

11.4%

25-L.McCoy

PHI

38

207

78

285

13.3%

44-A.Bradshaw

NYG

38

275

48

323

11.8%

33-M.Turner

ATL

38

334

12

346

11.0%

20-D.McFadden

OAK

37

223

47

270

13.7%

24-M.Lynch

BUF/SEA

36

201

22

223

16.1%

28-A.Peterson

MIN

35

284

36

320

10.9%

40-P.Hillis

CLE

35

270

61

331

10.6%

22-F.Jackson

BUF

34

222

31

253

13.4%

27-L.Blount

TB

33

201

5

206

16.0%

34-R.Mendenhall

PIT

33

324

23

347

9.5%

Player

Team

BT

Runs

Rec

Touches

BT/Touch

28-F.Jones

DAL

30

184

49

233

12.9%

32-M.Jones-Drew

JAC

30

300

34

334

9.0%

32-C.Benson

CIN

30

321

28

349

8.6%

39-S.Jackson

STL

28

330

46

376

7.4%

29-C.Ivory

NO

27

137

1

138

19.6%

25-J.Charles

KC

27

231

45

276

9.8%

28-J.Stewart

CAR

25

178

8

186

13.4%

27-K.Moreno

DEN

25

183

37

220

11.4%

46-R.Torain

WAS

22

164

18

182

12.1%

27-R.Rice

BAL

22

307

63

370

5.9%

20-J.Forsett

SEA

21

118

33

151

13.9%

24-C.Williams

TB

21

125

46

171

12.3%

35-M.Tolbert

SD

21

181

26

207

10.1%

39-D.Woodhead

NE

20

97

34

131

15.3%

are nowhere to be found amongst the top 26 in the league. 

You can find him here though.

Lowest Broken Tackle Rate, 2010 RB

Player

Team

BT

Runs

Rec

Touches

BT/Touch

23-T.Choice

DAL

2

66

17

83

2.4%

26-C.Wells

ARI

4

116

5

121

3.3%

21-L.Tomlinson

NYJ

10

220

52

272

3.7%

30-J.Kuhn

GB

4

84

15

99

4.0%

42-B.Green-Ellis

NE

10

229

12

241

4.1%

21-F.Gore

SF

11

203

46

249

4.4%

29-C.Taylor

CHI

6

112

20

132

4.5%

23-S.Greene

NYJ

10

185

16

201

5.0%

20-T.Jones

KC

13

246

14

260

5.0%

22-M.Forte

CHI

15

236

51

287

5.2%

So how about we all stop with this "Thomas Jones is a bruiser" commotion huh?

 

"He is a leader in the locker room and has a great impact on the players"

We hear Jamaal Charles all the time state that having another running back around adds years onto his career and gives him a good breather on the sideline after opening up a can of whoop ass on opposing defenses (he obviously didn't say the whoop ass part but he implies it through his play). Jamaal Charles is absolutely right, having another running back around does give the "primary" back time to get a breather and it can help him have a long lasting career. But in reality, all Thomas Jones really does is give him a breather. Scott Pioli can sign any other healthy player in the league to give Charles a breather. He doesn't actually do much individually as a player. 

Again as far as leadership, we are not in the Chiefs locker room so who are we to say how good or bad of a leader he truly is. We've have heard Jamaal Charles reiterate how Thomas Jones' experience with the game has helped him improve as a player, but what else could've Charles said? Was Charles supposed to say, "No, Jones doesn't actually help me that much. I was the first running back to rush for 1,100 yards on less than 200 carries before Jones was a member of the team."??? Jamaal Charles was an elite running back before Thomas Jones was on the team. But i digress, one thing we do know about Thomas Jones is he has gotten in fights with his own teammates on 3 separate occasions. These are just the fights that have been disclosed to the public. Locker room fights are rarely disclosed to the public so for it to happen 3 times with Thomas Jones doesn't show the signs of a leader to me. Among the two players I know of who were in fights with Jones were both recently drafted 1st round picks. He fought Cedric Benson after he was drafted as a 1st round pick in 2005 and of course our own Jonathan Baldwin in 2011. I will refrain from placing hypothetical situations into the matter, but what is known is that he has been in fights with very young players. The fact that a veteran has gotten into fights with players in their first years does not show a sign of a true leader to me.

With all that said, Thomas Jones should no longer have the starting role in the Chiefs offense. Give the rock to McClain and McCluster, let Jones lead the team from the sideline. 

This is a FanPost and does not necessarily reflect the views of Arrowhead Pride's writers or editors. It does reflect the views of this particular fan though, which is as important as the views of Arrowhead Pride writers or editors.