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I honestly don't know what to think of James Jones. The Super Bowl Champion Packers let the four-year veteran walk this week, declining even to tender him a RFA offer as sort of a just-in-case assurance. Jones now becomes a free agent and teams will no doubt wonder if they can be the one to coax the potential out of Jones. Is the 6'1" 208 lbs receiver someone that could be of interest to the St. Louis Rams?
Having a player named James Jones on the roster is always appealing to a writer, since it opens up the whole line of Jim Jones, magic kool-aid jokes. How he would fit on the roster is the more relevant question.
The conversation about Jones starts with dropped passes, something the Rams should already be familiar with after this season. Jones' infamous drop in the Super Bowl obscures the fact that he did catch five of six passes thrown his way. Dropped passes are a little easier to stomach when they're not dropped touchdown passes. For the season, Jones had a 57 percent catch rate, grabbing 50 balls on 87 targets, for 687 yards and 5 TDs.
Jones is a possession receiver, and when his head is in the game, he has the speed and moves to make plays after the catch. The question the Rams have to ask is what does Jones bring that Brandon Gibson could do as well. The upcoming 2011 season will be only Gibson's third, and he's a similar player. Jones probably has more natural ability to make plays after the catch than Gibson does. Gibson caught 58 percent of the passes thrown his way last year. I'm curious what he could do in a more well-rounded passing attack.