Amid Titans' Many Injuries, Ben Jones Plays On
NASHVILLE – Much attention was paid – and understandably so – to all the members of the Tennessee Titans who did not play Sunday.
The Titans pulled out a 30-24 overtime victory against the Baltimore Ravens without strong safety Kenny Vaccaro, outside linebacker Jadeveon Clowney, left guard Rodger Saffold, wide receiver Adam Humphries, tight end MyCole Pruitt and others, who were not in uniform because of injury. Along the way they lost inside linebacker Jayon Brown and left tackle Ty Sambrailo to in-game injuries of their own.
Then there was center Ben Jones. He toughed it out despite an injury to his left knee that required him to play with a brace.
Jones was one of seven Tennessee players who did not practice at all last week because of their ailments. The other six all were ruled out two days before the contest.
“I think he’s at a point in his career where you give him that opportunity,” coach Mike Vrabel said Monday. “You trust those types of players and say, ‘Hey, you’re not going to practice all week, and if you tell me you’re going to go, I believe that Ben Jones is going to go.’
“He’s not going to be a guy who goes out there for five or six snaps and says, ‘Well, I can’t go.’ That’s the type of person he is. That’s the type of player he is. A great leader for us.”
Actually, Jones did miss one of the offense’s 70 snaps against the Ravens. He had to go to the sideline momentarily midway through the third quarter after he got poked in the eye.
His absence – brief as it was – did not go unnoticed. On that one play, backup center Jamil Douglas misfired a snap to running back Derrick Henry, who was lined up in the Wildcat formation. The result was a 20-yard loss that forced the Titans to settle for a field goal after a basically hopeless third-down play.
Now in his ninth NFL season (four with Houston, five with Tennessee), Jones has missed one game in his career. That was last October, when a concussion ended his streaks of 120 consecutive games played and 86 straight starts.
From 2015, his final season with the Houston Texans, through 2018, his third with Tennessee, he played every possible offensive snap. And it is not that he was perfectly healthy all that time.
So, if any player was going to make it on the field amid the Titans’ myriad injury issues at present, it would be Jones.
“I can only speak for myself and the coaching staff [about] the amount of respect that we have for a guy like Ben Jones,” Vrabel said. “He never wants to come out. The respect that he has from his teammates is critical. The trust factor – he’ll do whatever he can do to be out there with them. How much it means to him. How much football, how much this team means to Ben.”
