Matt Jones is buried so far down the Washington Redskins' depth chart he doesn't see the point in participating in organized team activities.
NFL Network's Michael Silver reported Thursday that Jones has been told by coach Jay Gruden he is the team's No. 5 running back, motivating at least part of his decision to stay away from OTAs.
The Redskins' roster lists six running backs: Rob Kelley, Samaje Perine, Chris Thompson, Mack Brown, Jones and Keith Marshall.
Perine, a fourth-round rookie, will battle Kelley for first- and second-down snaps while Thompson takes the third-down duties. If the Redskins keep a fourth back, Brown makes the most sense at this stage, given his special teams ability.
At this point, Jones has no reason to attend workouts before a trade or release, but Gruden said Wednesday he expected the 6-foot-2, 232-pound runner to show up to workouts.
"I hope so. I expect him to be," Gruden said, via the team's official website. "He's on our roster, he's eating up a spot. We all know that this is voluntary, so there's really nothing that we can do. We'd like everybody to be here without a doubt, but at the end of the day, Jordan Reed is in Miami working out, Trent [Williams] is working out in Oklahoma, Matt Jones chose not to be here, so we obviously want people to work together and learn together, but it is voluntary at the end of the day."
Unlike Reed and Williams, Jones isn't in the Redskins' plans. Gruden can expect anything he wants. Jones isn't showing up.
The Redskins can hold out hope that someone will give them a low-level, conditional trade offer for a young, bruising back with a fumbling problem. Realistically, Washington likely will cut Jones at some point. The question is how far into the summer it'll wait before pulling the trigger.
