Some players on the New York Jets are disappointed that they’ll lose Thomas Jones as a teammate when the team cuts him on Friday, and one unnamed player expressed that disappointment by taking a shot at someone who’s still on the team.
“I can tell you, it’s not going to be a popular move in the locker room,” the New York Daily News quotes one unnamed player as saying. “We loved T.J. The man loved the game and put it all on the line only to get dumped after his best season. I think you should reward players for performance. You dump him but give Vernon [Gholston] another shot? Doesn’t make sense.”
Gholston, of course, has been a big disappointment since the Jets selected him with the sixth pick in the 2008 NFL draft, and it’s no surprise that this unnamed player resents Gholston’s status as a high-priced disappointment with a virtually guaranteed spot on the roster. Then again, the fact that unproductive high draft picks like Gholston have more job security than productive 30-somethings like Jones says more about the way the NFL structures contracts for Top 10 draft picks than it does about the Jets, Jones or Gholston individually.
In any event, that unnamed Jet wasn’t the only one who was disappointed to hear that Jones is leaving.
Said offensive lineman Brandon Moore, “A passionate guy like that, with the intensity he brought at certain points in the game, it ignited sparks in everybody. You would’ve liked to have kept a guy like that.”
And offensive lineman Damien Woody added, “Some players bring things to the table that you can’t put a price on, and T.J. is one of those guys.”
On the field, the Jets appear ready to make Shonn Greene their featured running back. But Jones will clearly be missed in the locker room.