JACKSONVILLE – New year, same dedicated approach.
For wide receiver Tim Jones, that approach – that the team must be made and remade every year – again produced the desired result.
One of the Jaguars' most underrated players made the roster again.
"I'm never comfortable," he said.
Jones, a third-year veteran and one of the Jaguars' top special teams players, made the team’s 53-player roster Tuesday. It's the third consecutive season he has made the "53" after spending the 2021 season on the practice squad.
"All camp, every single year, I'm just not stressing, but it's in the back of your mind," Jones said. "You have to come in here and be perfect every single day."
Jones, who played collegiately at Southern Mississippi, originally signed with the Jaguars as a collegiate free agent following the 2021 NFL Draft. He has 14 receptions for 83 yards, but he has excelled as a key player on special teams.
Jones and linebacker Caleb Johnsonemerged as perhaps the team's top two special teams players. Each has played in every game of Head Coach Doug Pederson's tenure as head coach with a combined three starts – all by Jones.
"I think it's very valuable," Pederson said. "Both have been staples on special teams, and I think it's a credit to them, but I think it's a message to the young players on our roster – that if you want to play in this league and you want to play on the club, you bust your tail on special teams.
"Both of those guys have kind of come up through that and have done a nice job. They've earned their spots."
Added Pederson, "These guys, they're pros. They know how to come in every day and work hard and they're diligent about their craft and have earned the spot."
If Jones' presence is part of a message that special teams are important to the Jaguars, it's one that he has received and one in which he strongly believes.
"It's all three phases, every single game," Jones said. "Punting the ball down and down it on the one-yard line and having their defense drive all the way down the field, that's tough to do: go 99 yards. Offense, defense, special teams, we take it all seriously.
"My big role on this team is special teams. Coming out of college, I never would have thought I'd play special teams, but I've grown to love what I do and just coming here to work every day."
Jones, despite making the initial regular-season roster the past two seasons and never missing a game in that span, called the final days anticipating the 53-man roster "a whole lot of stress."
"You just never know what's going to happen," he said. "There are always ups and downs. Every single year, it always comes down to just coming to work every day and doing what I do best and that's providing whatever the team needs.
"You can't control it. At the end of the day, you come to work and do what you can do and show what you can show every single day and leave it on the field."
And while Jones is committed to flourishing as a receiver, his main focus remains on contributing as much as he can whenever and wherever possible.
"I say you treat it like a pro," he said. "You're the guy in college coming out, but when you come in the league, you have to find your role, your niche, what you're good at and you just keep doing that.
"The receiver part, you keep developing so maybe down the road, you are the No. 3, No. 4 guy. I want to put myself in No. 1 or 2. You just keep developing."
