From The Miami Herald
https://www.miamiherald.com/sports/nfl/miami-dolphins/article221306405.html
Star safety Reshad Jones said he has no regrets about how he behaved on the Dolphins’ sidelines Sunday, but insisted that he’s no quitter.
“I’ve never been a quitter,” Jones said. “I’ve been here nine years, playing my *** off for this team. Never been a quitter, never will. I’m going to continue to do what I need to do to be one of the best in the league and help this team win football games.”
Jones also disagreed with the characterization that he took himself out of the game. But that might just might have been semantics.
A more accurate way to describe what happened Sunday seems to be that he refused to reenter the game after getting pulled as part of Matt Burke’s platoon plan. Burke asked Jones, Bobby McCain and T.J. McDonald to all sacrifice snaps to get rookie Minkah Fitzpatrick on the field more against the Jets.
McCain and McDonald followed those instructions without incident and returned to the field when their temporary benching was up. But once Jones was asked to come off the field after 10 snaps, he never returned. “I think anybody would be upset if they came out the game, but he didn’t say too much about it,” Fitzpatrick said. “… Just keep moving, that’s it.”
The Dolphins tried to do just that Wednesday, their first practice since Jones’ in-game protest. Dolphins players and coach Adam Gase tried to say as little as possible about what is probably the most embarrassing chapter of Jones’ decorated career.
When asked directly Wednesday if Jones had to mend fences with his teammates. Gase responded:
“All of that stuff, that’s between all of those guys and they’re going to keep that in house. I don’t think you’re going to get anybody talking about that. We handled what we needed to handle and we’re moving on.”
Added Fitzpatrick: “There’s no repairs. Everybody understood what the situation was.”
Another Dolphins defensive player acknowledged that it’s been a weird week in team headquarters, but that the team’s veteran leadership is handling the situation.
“I definitely spoke to my teammates and coaching staff,” Jones said. “We’re all on the same page, and we’re focusing all of our attention on Green Bay.”
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Last edited: Nov 8, 2018
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Guest
Trade him. Fitz is waay better. We could get a good lineman for him this offseason. I personnally have always thought jones was overrated. He gets hurt a lot.
mbsinmisc likes this. -
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All this article tells me is what an amateur Burke is and how fast we need to fire him...
If you cant figure out how to use Reshad and Minkah at the same time, you need to get the hell out of my team like right now. Many teams would kill to have two safeties with that much talent.
The Seahawks have dominated the past 7 or so years because of the duo of Kam and Earl..Dorfdad, texanphinatic and resnor like this. -
Sounds like a communications mishap to me. My take is Reshad wasn’t aware he was going to be part of the group rotated out to get Minkah more snaps, which is understandable since he is the pro-bowler with the best resume of the rotation group. Follow that up with some emotional over-reaction on game day and you have a recipe for a clusterf***.
Please note I’m not supporting Burke or Jones, simply saying this sounds like a problem that can be easily solved by rational mature adult behaviour. -
Hence why Jones got pissed off. It’s much more palatable if you’re doing it in the 4th quarter when you’re up by twenty.
But I tend to focus more on how to make things better next time than who screwed up last time, so I am happy that this should be an easy situation to fix. -
Except against the Jets, the most hated team by a majority of Fans and players.
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I think Jones was pissed, but all this talk is making a mountain out of a molehill.
I don't think what Burke was trying was wrong. I do think, however, that Jones refusal to reenter the game was wrong. But, the guy has been a true professional and has given it his all since day one. Everyone makes mistakes and it seems the coaching staff is willing to let bygones be bygones. Which, IMO, is a good thing.
I am worried about Burke, however. Too many players are too often not in the right place. I'm not saying it's all Burke's fault, but it could be.ripper1961 likes this. -
Even Cam hinted that players haven't been doing their job within the scheme, so Burke did have to shake it up by fitting round pegs in round holes. Is TJ a better player than Reshad, doubtful. However, if TJ is doing his job within the system & this leads to fewer breakdowns, the correct decision has to be made for the good of the team, as neither of them are free safeties. Burke just needs to find a way to get Minkah on the field for all defensive snaps - it's not necessarily the best thing to get your best 11 players on the field if the system doesn't work. This is Burke's dilemmaIrishman likes this.
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Dude, don't be ridiculous. Lots of guys play through pain, but lots of guys don't just openly defy the coach like that. If the coach wants to play Reshad one series a game, then he could. And Reshad should play that one series as hard as he would normally would play. It's not the players place to question the coach.
Of course he should, and would, be seeking to part ways with the team if that scenario occurred.Irishman and like this. -
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I don't agree with that sentiment in the pros. You're messing with players livelihoods at this level. When a coach has yet to get players to buy in and/or earn their respect, then they (coaches) don't deserve the benefit of the doubt in having full autonomy in what happens with their units.
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That was a selfish act. I haven't been running around here calling Jones selfish, though. I'm just saying, you can't say playing through pain makes him not selfish.