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Kaboly: Jarvis Jones still dealing with wrist injury
May 28, 2015 by Mark Kaboly
Rehabbing a wrist and being a pass-rushing linebacker in the NFL is a tricky proposition.
If Steelers linebacker Jarvis Jones didn’t figure that out last year when he came back from a dislocated wrist that required surgery only after 10 weeks, he sure does now.
The Steelers finished the first week of organized team activities on the South Side on Thursday and Jones revealed afterward that he is still dealing with some minor issues with his wrist.
“It was a serious injury and I am still rehabbing it and everything but I still have some strength and motion and mobility stuff I am working on with it,” Jones said.
The Steelers are counting on Jones to take over the full-time role as right outside linebacker even though James Harrison was re-signed in the offseason.
Jones appeared to be well on his way of having a solid second year in the league a season ago. Jones had two sacks in 56 pass rushes and also forced a fumble before dislocating his wrist on possibly his most disruptive play of his career.
Jones sacked Carolina quarterback Cam Newton and forced a fumble early in the third quarter of a 9-3 game. The Steelers turned it into a touchdown and went on to a 37-19 road win.
Jones spent the next 10 weeks on the injured reserve/designated to return list before coming back for a Week 14 game against the Bengals, where he split snaps with Arthur Moats.
After Harrison returned in Week 16, Jones rarely got on the field. Jones played 16 snaps over the final three games to cap a second unproductive season.
[URL]http://blog.triblive.com/steel-mill/2015/05/28/kaboly-jarvis-jones-still-dealing-with-wrist-injury/#ixzz3bUmQX8Hv[/URL]Comment
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Could you imagine if we had used that same logic with Lloyd himself? Hell what about Harrison. There's a lot of players that didn't get much playing time in year 1 and 2 that turned out fine. But now that DL is gone, these folks will have something else to whine about. That's all they do.
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Time will tell...Actually, my post was NOT about you...but, if the shoe fits, feel free to lace that &!+€# up and wear it.Comment
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Although not surprised, I'm sorry to read that Jones has lingering issues with the wrist. Of all injuries, the wrist seems to be among the more difficult to rehab and fully heal after surgery. It's almost June, so you have to wonder if he'll be 100% by August.Comment
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Zack: Jarvis Jones, Did he look stronger or bigger?
Gerry Dulac: Can't tell about stronger. Won't know that until they put on pads and he has to go against an offensive lineman. But he looks bigger -- thicker in the upper torso. I didn't think that at all last year when he reported for his second season.
[URL]http://www.post-gazette.com/sports/steelers/2015/05/28/Gerry-Dulac-s-Steeler-chat-transcript-5-28-15/stories/201505280219[/URL]Comment
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Rossi: To take Harrison's place, Steelers' Jones needs strong grip
Steelers linebacker Jarvis Jones works out during organized team activities Wednesday, May 27, 2015, on Pittsburgh's South Side.
By Rob Rossi
Saturday, May 30, 2015
His grip isn't strong enough yet. Jarvis Jones knows that must change if he wants to keep James Harrison from ripping the Steelers' starting right outside linebacker job from him.
So to beat out Harrison, Jones joined him for workouts — and, more important, mentoring sessions — that may shape the future of the Steelers' most prominent defensive position.
“It was pretty awesome,” Jones said. “He's been an open book. I think he's a future Hall of Famer. So I watched and learned and listened to everything he had to say.”
Harrison's message was the same Joey Porter once passed to him: Win during offseason workouts to win on the Sundays and Mondays during the NFL season.
Might seem strange for a veteran to bring along his replacement, but that's the way it works at this particular position for the franchise that has made it a calling card. The Steelers Way is to be ready with a Next Man Up. And that Next Man has often gone onto great things.
But Jones isn't Harrison in shape, form or temperament, and that might be why he's been a tough sell to a Steelers Nation that likes its outside backers to be just plain nasty.
It's all right for everybody to settle for just plain good, and I predict Jones is about to show us he'll at least become that.
He opened last season with 14 combined tackles, two sacks and a forced fumble. That happened in three games. He showed glimpses of becoming what the Steelers believed he would when they selected him 17th overall in the 2013 NFL Draft.
What you might not remember about Jones' start to last season was how rarely he was pushed backward at the point of contact, the inside-rush technique he began to develop, the flow that showed because he better understood one of football's most complicated defenses.
Hey, I had forgotten about all of that, too. I knew Jones played in the Steelers' final five contests after a long absence, but I had to look it up for confirmation. He was in on four tackles. How many of those do you remember?
I cannot remember the last time an early-season injury so changed a Steelers plan. Tommy Maddox going down and Ben Roethlisberger coming in comes to mind, and that was in 2004.
When Jones was sidelined with a dislocated right wrist after Week 3, the Steelers turned to Harrison, who had retired a month earlier. By the time Jones was ready to play two months later, he had become the Steelers' equivalent of Wally Pipp. The difference was Harrison had already been a Lou Gehrig-like figure, and Steelers players — including Jones — acted like they were the luckiest men on the face of the earth just to have Harrison around.
It was weird.
Jones clearly was the future and looked up to the task before he was injured. In his absence, Harrison recaptured enough of his glorious past to shape the present. And here, Jones is a perceived bust-in-waiting even though Harrison offers probably the best evidence for showing patience with young pass rushers.
An undrafted free agent, Harrison collected all of four sacks in his first three seasons. He didn't get into double digits until his fifth.
Of course, by the end of that season, Harrison was pro football's finest defensive player, not to mention the spiritual heir to the likes of Porter, Greg Lloyd and Jack Lambert — linebackers whose ferocity, if not meanness, symbolized Steelers football.
Jones senses he doesn't fit the mold.
“I think what Pittsburgh is used to is LaMarr Woodley and James Harrison, and I'll never be those guys,” Jones said. “Those guys are 260, 270 (pounds). When I get old one day I'll probably be 260 or 270, but that ain't me … 250 is fine for me.”
He's supposedly too small at 6-foot-2 and those 250 pounds, but I've never seen a blocker pancake him. Also, having covered the Super Bowl and watched the more athletic linebackers of the New England Patriots and Seattle Seahawks, I'm at least intrigued that Jones prefers to be labeled “an athlete” instead of a power rusher.
Harrison, Porter and Lloyd were hardly one-trick pass rushers, by the way. Those three outside linebackers — tops among many good ones to play for the Steelers over the past 30 years — combined for 183 sacks and 26 interceptions during their tenures.
To fully grasp this position for the Steelers, the outside linebacker must have a firm grip on defending passes as well as rushing the passer.
The only thing about Jones that I doubt is his grip. As Trib Total Media's Mark Kaboly reported during Week 1 of the Steelers' organized team activities, Jones said he “still (has) some strength, motion and mobility stuff I'm working on” during ongoing rehabilitation of his wrist.
The Steelers' Next Man Up has always needed strong hands.
In Jones' case, they're needed to help hold back a legend.
[URL]http://triblive.com/sports/robrossi/8429616-74/jones-steelers-harrison#ixzz3bkLfxCom[/URL]Comment
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