After Missing Last Season With Injury, TJ Jones Working To Get Back To Normal
By Ashley Dunkak
@AshleyDunkak
ALLEN PARK - Professional athletes live daily with the understanding that there is always someone gunning for their jobs. As a rookie last season, Detroit Lions wide receiver TJ Jones had to deal with that reality while stuck on the physically-unable-to-perform list all year because of an injury.
"It was stressful for a couple months," Jones said Wednesday after the team's second mandatory minicamp practice. "Over time once you realize there's nothing you could do, your body was going to heal at its own pace, you kind of accepted it, and then you just worked on rehabbing and focusing on coming back during the OTAs and the minicamps and trying to be at your best."
The Lions selected Jones in the sixth round in 2013. During his senior year at Notre Dame, Jones injured his shoulder, and once he arrived in Detroit, he underwent surgery to correct the issue. There was a nerve problem after the surgery, however, and that kept Jones out of action longer.
He cannot remember the last time he felt like himself on a football field, the last time he was totally healthy and at ease. However, Jones looked quite comfortable on one catch in particular in Wednesday's practice, hauling in a long pass and delighting his teammates in the process.
"It was my first deep ball, I think, of minicamp, so it was good to kind of get out, open your stride up, track a ball with someone kind of battling you down the field," Jones said. "It was just a good feeling."
Breaking into the regular rotation at wide receiver could be difficult for Jones. The starting spots at the position belong to Calvin Johnson and Golden Tate, and among those battling for backup spots are Lance Moore, Corey Fuller and Jeremy Ross. Moore is a seasoned veteran who is familiar with Detroit's offense because he played for years for the New Orleans Saints, who play a similar system. Fuller and Ross both simply have more experience than Jones in the offense, both having played in all 16 games last year.
Jones said he has tried not to concern himself with what his role will be.
"I don't really have an expectation," Jones said. "I'm going out to get back to what I can do best, or to work on doing everything that I can do the best of my ability and letting the coaches kind of decide where that falls in their minds. I'm not trying to worry on what I can't control."
During his time out of action last year, Jones spoke often with his mother, and those conversations helped him get through the darkness of seeing his NFL career put on hold by injury. She lofted the idea that perhaps the injury was even a blessing in disguise.
The jury is out on that possibility, Jones said, but he did gain from the experiences that he might not have had, at least not to the same level, if he had been healthy.
"I learned how to study film," Jones said. "I helped break down a lot of the film for the receiver side, got to focus on how to read coverages, how to stay in the playbook, learned every position last year, and it also helped you to kind of learn how to rehab, how to get in there early before most people get in there, stay late after practice - the things that you need to do before you get hurt, I learned to do, and the importance of them."
Now that he is back from the injury, Jones has done his best to forget about it. He knows it is likely most everyone else has.
"At least in my head, I don't have the excuse anymore," Jones said. "If they've allowed me to practice and I'm going to go out there and practice with everyone else, I can't go out there with, in the back of my mind thinking, 'If I drop a ball it's okay, they know my hands hurt.'
"If I'm going to play like everyone else or practice like everyone else, I've got to think the way they do and just kind of execute to the best of my ability," Jones added.
He might not feel like himself out there yet, but he is getting closer.
"Every day's a work in progress, every day I'm feeling a little more comfortable, a little more normal, a little more excited to get back out on the field because you can see yourself progressing from day one, when I first started running routes, to now," Jones said.
"Right now I'm just working to get back to where - a place where I feel comfortable," Jones added. "I'm working to do the things I can do, be the best I can be, and kind of just make the plays when my name's called."
