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The Dallas Cowboys added Super Bowl talent to their roster in Brandin Cooks and Stephon Gilmore. Now they continue down the same path by adding running back Ronald Jones.
On Tuesday, the Cowboys agreed to sign the former Kansas City Chief to a one-year contract. Jones is another veteran running back on the roster after Dallas released Ezekiel Elliott as a post-June 1st cut last week. He joins Tony Pollard, Malik Davis, and newly re-signed Rico Dowdle.
The two-time Super Bowl Champion was drafted in the second round by the Tampa Bay Buccaneers in 2018. Coming out of the draft with high expectations, Jones never became the lead back in Tampa Bay but still managed to accumulate 2,174 rushing yards, 593 receiving yards, and 19 total touchdowns.
Jones’s best season with the Bucs came in 2020 when he rushed for a career-best 978 yards and seven touchdowns, but he was a part of last season’s Chiefs team that won the Super Bowl as well.
Arrowhead Pride’s Pete Sweeney provided us with some insight in RoJo’s time in Kansas City:
The Kansas City Chiefs signed Ronald Jones to a one-year contract nearly a year ago, and at the time of the signing, it seemed like it could be the perfect fit — given that Darrel Williams was moving on and Clyde Edwards-Helaire needed a new two to the Chiefs’ one-two punch. But as the offseason carried on, Kansas City’s running back room got a bit stuffier for a former 1,000-yard rusher that likely penned the contract happy to be out of the shadow of Leonard Fournette. The Chiefs brought back Jerick McKinnon, who had been their best back during the 2021 NFL playoffs and also drafted rookie Isiah Pacheco, who the club was so high on that he would later be named the starter.
It led to a training camp that eventually saw Jones taking third-team reps, and many of us felt he would not make the 53-man roster. But Jones did, and what had been a year of a hopeful reemergence for Jones turned into a year of being a team’s contingency plan. He only appeared in six regular season games, seeing 10% of snaps and 18 touches — a lower total than his rookie year. In late October, Jones tweeted he would like to be released, but the club held onto him. The Chiefs did finally activate him down their stretch, and he even showed promise in Week 17, when he had 10 rushes for 45 yards, showing the north-and-south burst he displayed in Tampa Bay.
For whatever reason — and mostly a numbers game — it did not work out in Kansas City. When the 25-year-old signs next, I anticipate it will be a team that essentially guarantees him playing time and touches, and at 25 with fresh legs, that team will be getting value no matter how lucrative the contract.
Jones should have fresh legs coming into his first offseason with the Cowboys. After not resigning with Tampa Bay, RoJo signed a one-year deal with the Chiefs as noted, played in six games, and added 70 yards to his career total. Even though he didn’t play much, getting his second Super Bowl ring is a good compromise.
