Michael Rothstein, ESPN Staff Writer 9y

Morning Roar: TJ Jones starting to feel better for Lions

ALLEN PARK, Mich. -- The frustration is over for rookie receiver TJ Jones now. He worked past the initial shock of needing offseason shoulder surgery, the nerve issues that followed, and essentially missing three quarters of his rookie season in the NFL on the physically unable to perform list.

The Lions' sixth-round pick in May has been able to practice for the past two weeks and it has gone better than he anticipated. He quickly realized he was actually feeling better than he did before organized team activities, when he discovered he would have to have the surgery that shelved him for most of the season.

At first he was concerned about how he would respond to practicing again after missing so much time, but by the end of the first week he was back on the field like normal.

"I'm feeling healthy enough to compete," Jones said. "When I'm out there, I don't think about it. I just go out there, run my routes, make plays on the balls that I can and just to almost zone out. When you think about it, that's when you drop balls, start to second-guess yourself.

"So I don't give myself room to make those kinds of errors."

With a month left in the season, though, he doesn't know whether or not he'll end up playing at all this season. Jones is going to go through this week of practice like normal and then the Lions have to make a decision. Do they activate him, release him or send him to the season-ending injured reserve list?

Jones said Monday he doesn't know what will happen but would understand if Detroit chose to sit him for the season considering he hasn't played yet and the team is still pretty healthy at receiver.

"I'd understand," Jones said. "They have to make decisions that are best for the team and for my personal health and this late in the season, when we still have depth, it's not like it's completely out of the question for them to IR me the rest of the year.

"So whatever they go with, I'm going to support and can't change it so I'm going to support it and make the best out of the new situation that will arise after the decision."

And now, a look around the Interwebs in search of Lions and other news:

  • The evolution of wide receiver Golden Tate. Ezekiel Ansah is growing into a force for Detroit. A new feature ... Recruiting tales with the first installment featuring Joseph Fauria. Lions move up two spots in Power Rankings. Matthew Stafford -- quarterback snapshot. This week's The Film Don't Lie.

  • A Monster Jam truck show won't prevent the Lions from hosting a potential playoff game, writes Dave Birkett of the Detroit Free Press.

  • Green Bay's run has the Lions looking at the wild card, writes Josh Katzenstein of the Detroit News.

  • Is Corey Fuller getting open? Justin Rogers of MLive takes a look.

  • Former Lions offensive coordinator Mike Martz is living in San Diego now and takes Robert Klemko of The MMQB inside his mind and his basement.

  • Former NFL exec Joe Banner is now reading and responding on Twitter, writes Rand Getlin of Yahoo! Sports.

 

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