Report: Ronald Jones Making Chiefs’ Roster ‘Looking Okay So Far'

As the Kansas City Chiefs' 2022 preseason has wrapped up, the real work begins now as the club prepares for the soon-to-come regular season slate. That starts with final roster cuts, and all 32 teams have until Tuesday at 4 p.m. EST to trim their player totals from 80 to 53.

For the Chiefs, they saw a lot of changes over the course of the offseason and boast arguably a deeper and factually a younger roster than they did a year ago. Instead of banking on running things back with well-entrenched veterans, general manager Brett Veach went after youth and athleticism to stimulate competition at multiple positions. Running back is one of those, and things are heating up in Andy Reid, Eric Bieniemy and Greg Lewis's position room.

Early in the offseason, Kansas City brought in Ronald Jones II to presumably be insurance and supplemental help for starter Clyde Edwards-Helaire. The team then used a seventh-round pick on Rutgers' Isiah Pacheco, then veteran Jerick McKinnon was re-signed. All of a sudden, a position that was a massive question mark became one of the deepest parts of the depth chart. Some questions still remain, though, including whether Jones will even make the team. On Friday, Ian Rapoport of NFL Network reported on the latest in regards to his chances of making it past the last round of roster cuts. Here's what he had to say:

Another player we're keeping our eye on: Ronald Jones with the Kansas City Chiefs. Signed for just a million-and-a-half dollars, due $500,000 guaranteed. We've seen the emergence of players such as Isiah Pacheco and, of course, they have Clyde Edwards-Helaire. [Jones] played pretty well last night. Might that be enough to keep him on the roster? Looking okay so far, but stay tuned at a later date to see which way they end up.

By all accounts, Jones had an underwhelming training camp and spent quite a bit of time behind the likes of Pacheco and Edwards-Helaire in regard to camp snap splits. In the first two preseason games, he had a combined four carries for one yard and a single three-yard reception while playing in 16% and 14% of available snaps in those two games. Nothing was going right for Jones, and the sheer numbers game and reality of the situation made it seem as if he had next to no shot of making the team.

Now, though, things may be changing. Reserve Derrick Gore suffered a fractured thumb and was waived via injury settlement, leaving one less running back on the roster. Jones also had a legitimately good performance on Thursday against the Green Bay Packers, toting the ball eight times for 43 yards and hauling in a four-yard reception on just 13 snaps (24%). Veach also mentioned him when explaining how diverse and skilled the running back room was. Whether that improvement in numbers will lead to the Chiefs or another team wanting to have Jones around remains to be seen, but the mini-breakout combined with Rapoport's recent comments make this less of an open-and-shut case than many thought it would be a couple of weeks ago.