Cornerback Cyrus Jones didn’t play a down after being claimed off waivers by the Broncos last November, but landing in Denver wound up to be a very good thing for Jones’ health.
Jones had a stomach illness after joining the team last year that he thought was related to being at high altitude. A trip to the doctor revealed that Jones was actually dealing with a congenital heart defect that required open-heart surgery to correct. Jones finished out the year on the non-football illness list, but he’s not giving up on playing football again.
He’s been training several days a week for the last few months and his agent said he’s spoken to teams that have expressed interest in bringing him in for a workout once he’s cleared for football activities.
“When you go through something like that, it forces you to dig deep and kind of figure out who you truly are, what you’ve really got in you and how much you’re willing to sacrifice to get back out there and chase your dream again,” Jones said, via Glenn Graham of the Baltimore Sun. “I found out that I’m even more unbreakable than I thought I was. I’ve been through a lot in my career and having all that thrown on top of it definitely could have been a catastrophic thing. I could have just kind of given up, but that’s never been me.”
Jones was a 2016 second-round pick by the Patriots and moved on to the Ravens after being waived in 2018. He was a strong punt returner for much of his time in Baltimore, but got dropped from the roster a couple of weeks after a fumble during a return in a win over New England.