There’s rookie mistakes and then there’s costing your team games.
Cyrus Jones has done the latter for the New England Patriots. And they need to do something about it.
Throughout his rookie year, Jones has been a punt returner for the Pats — and he has struggled to hold onto the ball.
Thus far, Jones has fumbled five times. Yes, that’s right, five times. You know how many combined punts and kickoffs he’s returned? 18. Yeah. That’s not a very reliable clip.
It’s also worth noting Jones has only amassed 42 yards on 10 punt returns, good for 4.2 yards per return. It was also his error on Monday that made the Pats have to play a competitive game against the Baltimore Ravens since if he fielded his punt cleanly and the boys in blue went down in scored, it would have been a 30-3 game. And that’s what we like to call lopsided.
What makes this even more frustrating for Pats fans is that even though he was only picked at the end of the second round in this past NFL draft (60th overall), he was their top pick. Of course, the Pats forfeited their top pick in the whole deflategate thing. I know. Not good.
There is no reason to cut someone so young (actually, there kind of is). But at the same time, this is a New England Patriots team who is competing for an AFC title and potentially a Super Bowl. Should it really be left in the hands of someone who is just going to drop those hopes? Probably not the best idea they’ve ever had but then again, neither was Bethel Johnson. On paper, that one seemed like a great idea though.
You can give a rookie a break. But if he keeps it up, at some point, everyone is going to have to start calling him Miley Cyrus.