Oakland Raiders wide receiver James Jones is just 30 years old. He’s never been the No. 1 option on an NFL team and he’s never caught more than 64 passes in a single season.
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While many might view that as average-usage during a seven-year career, the Raiders coaching staff apparently believes that’s too much for Jones to be the team’s top target.
From Vic Tafur of sfgate.com:
"The receiving corps is solid at best, with the coaches thinking James Jones might have too much wear to be suited for the No. 1 role."
It’s strange reasoning, but Jones isn’t a No. 1 receiver based off of his talent, so ultimately Oakland is probably making the right choice not to rely too heavily on him.
Jones caught 59 balls for 813 yards in 14 games this past season while on the Green Bay Packers high-flying offense. So the idea that he could be a top option on a team ran by Derek Carr wouldn’t make much sense in the first place.
That’s why, as Tafur notes, the offense very well could rely havily on its running backs and tight end instead of Jones and the receiving core.
"The plan is to employ a lot of play-action passes after Oakland establishes the run and to attempt to create mismatches with McFadden, Reece and tight end Mychal Rivera."
The Raiders will kick off their season against the New York Jets on the road.