Jaguars Place Sidney Jones on IR; Corner Ineligible To Return This Season

The Jacksonville Jaguars have placed corner Sidney Jones IV on Injured Reserve. Due to the timeline, he must remain there for the rest of the Jaguars 2020 season.

The Jacksonville Jaguars have placed cornerback Sidney Jones IV on Injured Reserve, the club announced on Saturday. 

Players must spend a minimum of 21 days on Injured Reserve before being designated for return during which time the team can promote the player back to the active roster. Given that timeline and the fact Jacksonville has only two games remaining, Jones is effectively out for the remainder of the Jaguars 2020 season.

Jones—who came to Jacksonville after three years spent with the Philadelphia Eagles—became a starting corner for the Jags before sitting out three games with the Achilles injury from Week 10-13. He then returned for the Week 14 matchup with the Tennessee Titans. In that game, Jones recorded three tackles. He was then placed back on the practice injury report last week before officially being ruled out last Friday against the Ravens; and now this week of course, he was placed on IR.

After spending three seasons with the Eagles, the Washington Huskies defensive back was waived in early September 2020. The Jaguars signed the 2017 second-round pick to the practice squad before promoting him ahead of the Week 2 game versus the Tennessee Titans. With Tre Herndon moving inside to nickel to take over for the injured D.J. Hayden, Jones began starting opposite CJ Henderson. In Week 5, Jones recorded an interception off of Deshaun Watson and then broke up a pass to cause another Jaguars interception. Jones still leads the team in passes defended (9) and is tied for interceptions with Joe Schobert (2). He has 26 tackles and one forced fumble on the year.

Losing Jones is a shot to a position group already decimated by injury. D.J. Hayden and CJ Henderson are still on the Injured Reserve list (with Henderson not expected to return for the rest of the season). However Chris Claybrooks did return to the active roster last week after missing time with a core muscle injury.

Back on November 19, Defensive Coordinator Todd Wash said of Jones, “he’s getting his hands on balls, I think he’s being disruptive. He’s really doing a nice job in man coverage and getting disruption at the line of scrimmage. Obviously, some plays you don’t even see that he gets great disruption at the line of scrimmage and the quarterback goes away from him. So, he’s playing [consistently], which is really good to see and hopefully he’s going to be a Jaguar for a while.”

With Jones out, the club promoted corner Quenton Meeks to the active roster. The Stanford alum originally signed with the Jaguars as an undrafted free agent in 2018 out of college. He spent part of the 2019 and 2020 season with the Los Angeles Chargers before being waived on November 26 of this year. Meeks is from San Diego, where he father—Ron—coached defensive backs for the then San Diego Chargers. But his father grew up in Jacksonville.

The Jaguars will face the Chicago Bears on Sunday at 1pm for the final home stand of the season. They will then travel to face the Indianapolis Colts for the 2020 regular season finale.