Ian Allan
I see that Todd Haley is talking about his new one-two punch at running back. Kansas City recently signed Thomas Jones to go along with Jamaal Charles.
Haley, I see, is of the opinion that Thomas Jones is a good pass-catching back.
“This is a guy that has shown he’s a complete back,” Haley said in an article in the Kansas City Star.. “He can run a lot of different runs successfully. He’s shown that on tape. He had a year when he caught 56 balls.”
That’s where Haley is simply wrong. Jones may have caught 56 passes in one of his seasons with the Bears (six years ago), but he’s definitely not a good receiver. On the contrary, he’s one of the league’s worst pass-catching running backs.
Last year, for example, he caught only 10 of the 18 passes the Jets threw to him. Of the 78 other running backs who had at least 15 passes, only two caught a lower percentage of balls – fullbacks Lawrence Vickers and Lousaka Polite.
Jones has been in the league for a long time (he’s 31 years old). And he’s shown over and over that he simply doesn’t do much with the ball when it’s thrown to him. He drops too many passes, and he doesn’t do enough damage with those balls. In four of the past five years, in fact, he’s averaged under 6 yards per reception (which is low for a running back).
If you total up the numbers for the last five years, Jones has averaged only 6.5 yards per catch as a receiver. That’s the 3rd-lowest among running backs with at least 70 catches.
Jamaal Charles, on the other hand, averages 2 more yards per catch than Jones – 8.5 to 6.5.
Jones will not be making a big impact as a receiver. There are many unknowns with Kansas City’s offense, but that isn’t one of them.
YARDS PER CATCH FOR RUNNING BACKS, 2005-2009
Runners with 70-plus receptions.
No Yds Avg
84 870 10.4 Darren Sproles
83 829 10.0 Adrian Peterson
83 801 9.7 Jerious Norwood
74 675 9.1 Leonard Weaver
118 1069 9.1 Chester Taylor
111 975 8.8 Ray Rice
80 701 8.8 Kevin Smith
155 1346 8.7 Maurice Jones-Drew
86 741 8.6 Ronnie Brown
87 737 8.5 Pierre Thomas
94 794 8.4 Steve Slaton
105 878 8.4 Fred Jackson
142 1170 8.2 Kevin Faulk
148 1215 8.2 Frank Gore
93 763 8.2 Chris Johnson
87 713 8.2 Derrick Ward
169 1354 8.0 Brian Westbrook
132 1055 8.0 LaDainian Tomlinson
84 664 7.9 Clinton Portis
120 948 7.9 Matt Forte
117 906 7.7 Joseph Addai
122 920 7.5 Marion Barber
129 972 7.5 Steven Jackson
74 548 7.4 DeAngelo Williams
98 699 7.1 Leon Washington
93 663 7.1 Marshawn Lynch
86 607 7.1 Earnest Graham
72 501 7.0 Julius Jones
172 1192 6.9 Reggie Bush
97 665 6.9 Tim Hightower
84 568 6.8 Warrick Dunn
74 482 6.5 Thomas Jones
73 458 6.3 Ryan Grant
82 489 6.0 Willis McGahee
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