Less than a year after locking him up to a new four-year contract, the Ravens have parted ways with veteran wide receiver and return man Jacoby Jones. The team made the move official today, announcing in a press release that Jones’ contract has been terminated.
Because Jones’ contract came with a $3.5MM signing bonus and still runs for three more years, the Ravens won’t free up much cap space by releasing the 30-year-old. Assuming the club doesn’t designate Jones as a post-June 1 cut, his cap hit will be reduced from $3.375MM to $2.625MM for 2015. Designating him a post-June 1 cut would create $2.5MM in cap savings.
Jones, a former third-round pick, continued to return kicks and punts for Baltimore in 2014, but his role on offense was significantly reduced — after being targeted 68 times and hauling in 37 passes in 2013, Jones received just 18 targets and caught nine passes in 2014. He also averaged 30.6 yards on 32 kickoff returns, and 9.2 yards on 30 punt returns.
Having decided to cut Jones, the Ravens still have a number of other important contract issues to address. Baltimore is working on restructuring deals for Haloti Ngata and Lardarius Webb, and Justin Forsett and Torrey Smith are among the team’s notable free-agents-to-be.
As for Jones, as a veteran with more than four years of NFL experience, he won’t pass through waivers, and is immediately eligible to sign elsewhere.