James Jones made a splashy return to the Packers lineup in Week One with a pair of touchdown catches that the team needed to get past the Bears 31-23 at Soldier Field.
Jones had been back with Green Bay for less than a week when he took the field for that game, but it wasn’t just his past experience playing with Aaron Rodgers that helped him make a quick transition. Jones spent the summer with the Giants, where offensive coordinator Ben McAdoo is running a scheme with plenty of concepts that came from the time that both McAdoo and Jones were with the Pakcers.
“I was on my couch for a minute, and then I was able to go to the Giants, where the playbook is almost identical because Ben McAdoo was with the Packers for so long, and he took that offense over there,” Jones said, via TheMMQB.com. “I was able to polish off all the rust, play in some games and able to get in football shape. So when I came here, it was all second nature. There were a couple new plays that Aaron had put in and a couple new signals, but we talked about that and were able to get on the same page with that.”
Jones did well with the Giants during the preseason, but said he realized the team was set with Odell Beckham, Victor Cruz and Rueben Randle as their top three wideouts and told coach Tom Coughlin that he wanted “to go somewhere and play and be a part of an offense” rather than possibly winding up inactive at points in the season. The Giants obliged, although Cruz’s injury and Preston Parker’s drops in the opener may have some wondering if they could have found a role for Jones.