The Saints’ roster stood at 89 yesterday until the latest addition, which was that of veteran Greg Jones. Jones is a fullback that recently turned 33 and played almost his entire career from 2004 to 2012 with the Jacksonville Jaguars. Last season he was on the Houston Texans and he played in 16 games as the starting fullback. Jones is widely known as a one time elite blocking specialist that offers little else. He doesn’t have quite the height or hands in the flat that Erik Lorig offers, but he’s a stout lead blocker. The addition of Jones is a bit of a concern because it suggests the injury to Lorig (he has been absent from practice the last two days) could perhaps linger into the season. Lorig had been brought in to replace Jed Collins this offseason on a 4 year $4.8 million deal specifically to give the running game more physicality. Sean Payton has spoken a few times about how impressed he was with Tampa running the ball late last year and Lorig was a big part of that success. This would be a disappointing loss to the ground game and the Saints’ emphasis on being more physical. But Jones is a battering ram in his own right.
Jones was one of only 7 offensive players to carry a season total positive grade for the abysmal 2013 Houston Texans, according to Pro Football Focus. He carried an overall blocking grade of +2.5 for the season which was 8th best in the NFL out of 25 qualifying fullbacks. Lorig and Collins were both in the negative. PFF also graded Jones as the 3rd best blocking fullback in the NFL in 2012, 3rd best in 2011, the best in the NFL in 2010, the best in 2008 and the best in 2007. Yes, you read that correctly. So while PFF is far from gospel, there is no question that Jones is a phenomenal blocker, as recently as last season despite his age. I could be wrong but I don’t think the Saints would bring in a guy like Jones and waste his/their time unless he had the potential to fill a role on this team. That doesn’t mean Jones won’t ultimately get cut prior to the 53 man roster trim, but I don’t think the intention here is purely landing a “camp body”. This is not the kind of signing you typically make for a stopgap reps eater that lasts a couple weeks while your starter heals up. If that was needed, the Saints could easily give an undrafted rookie a minimum contract and some reps. This tells me there’s a chance they may need Jones this season. The late great “Buddy D” used to always tell my friend Ralph Malbrough to watch what the Saints do, not what they say. This signing signals to me that something is wrong with Lorig. It may not be season ending, but it puts his availability for week 1 in jeopardy. That’s why, in my opinion, the Saints brought in Jones and not the fullback that just graduated from Prairie View A&M looking for an NFL training camp experience for a few weeks before he goes to work as an intern at Kinko’s.
Of course the concern doesn’t stop there. Going into this first preseason Rams game tomorrow it looks like the Saints will start Senio Kelemete at left guard, Tim Lelito at center and Marcel Jones at right guard. I realize this is just the first preseason game, but my pre-training camp preferred interior trio of Ben Grubbs, Jonathan Goodwin and Jahri Evans is missing all three parts. Only of of those three is healthy, yet Goodwin is still somehow behind Lelito on the depth chart. Grubbs looks to be on the mend despite missing close to the entirety of camp thus far, and Evans is suffering from something that’s kept him completely absent from practice the last 48 hours. That’s concerning because health was an issue for Evans for the entirety of 2013 and it affected his performance on the field. When you add Loring to that mix, the Saints’ inside power game is all of a sudden feeling extremely weak.
Of course, as long as everything shapes up by week 1 of the regular season, none of this really matters. But I’m officially slightly concerned about the how the interior blocking looks at present. By no means is it time to panic, but I’m anxious to see at least some of these guys return. Your thoughts?
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