Maurice Jones-Drew is a game-time decision, and he looks unlikely to play, according to a report in The Florida Times-Union. Jones-Drew didn’t practice at all on Wednesday or Thursday (or all of last week). He returned to put in a limited practice on Friday.
But Jones-Drew doesn’t seem to be there yet. He’s officially questionable, and he’s a game-time decision.
"We'll work him out before the game to finalize that," says Gus Bradley. "I feel better today. He was in on some run plays and he took some actual reps."
This, of course, is different from what we reported in our Friday night supplement. A few readers have asked about that, and it’s a fair question.
For the Friday write-up, I was working off the injury report released by the league. Jacksonville files a report with league, and then the league releases it. In that injury report, Jones-Drew is listed as having practiced fully.
I saw the “practiced fully” and figured Jones-Drew was probably ready to go.
But somewhere along the line, something got mangled. Jones-Drew didn’t practice fully on Friday. He was a limited participant, which is very different.
So right now, if you’re guessing, Jones-Drew isn’t playing and we can start wonder if Jordan Todman is a top-5 back. Todman put up over 150 yards last week, and he’s at home this week against a Tennessee defense that’s allowed the 2nd-most rushing touchdowns in the league.
I’ve updated the stat projections, and we’ll get those loaded onto the site. But it shakes out something like this.
Maurice Jones-Drew
Right now, I’d say he’d be about the 30th-35th running back in most formats. If, come Sunday morning, he’s active for the game, then he will be 15th in the standard format, 18th in PPR and 9th in TD-only.
Jordan Todman
Right now, he is the 22nd running back in standard, 25th in PPR and 17th in TD-only. If Jones-Drew gets scratched on Sunday, then Todman will be the No. 4 running back in standard and in TD-only, and the No. 7 back in PPR.
Good luck to everyone in their games this weekend.
--Ian Allan