It’s annoying to see the New Orleans Saints lose a player and get nothing back in compensation, but it’s important to acknowledge this was a risk they were willing to take. And it was reasonable to think a running back with just two carries this season wouldn’t have had a problem clearing the waiver wire.
But that wasn’t the case — ESPN’s Field Yates reports that three different teams filed waiver claims for former Saints running back Tony Jones Jr. when the team let him go earlier this week. New Orleans may have had designs for Jones to return to their practice squad after going unclaimed, but several other teams were waiting for him to become available, and now he’ll be running for another squad.
To be totally honest, it isn’t that big of a loss. Jones was a healthy inactive twice this season before the Saints chose to waive him. He’s logged 59 rushing attempts for 163 yards (2.8 yards per carry) in his three-year NFL career, catching 7 of 10 targets to gain another 41 yards. He wasn’t going to get many snaps behind Alvin Kamara, Mark Ingram II, and Dwayne Washington. But it is another hit to a weak area on the depth chart that’s struggled through the first five weeks of the season.
Anyway — here are the teams that submitted waiver claims for Jones: