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Previously I had been calling this thread "Hall of Very Good", but I decided that Better Than You Remember is a more apt name. The main reason is that some of the players discussed may eventually make it into the Hall of Fame. Today however, is not one of those players. Thomas Jones was a good player, who did top an impressive career milestone but no one in their right mind would consider him an all time great. Jones got his career started with the Arizona Cardinals and Tampa Bay Buccaneers, however it wasn't until a three year stint with the Chicago Bears that his career took off, eventually reaching a Super Bowl where they lost to the Colts. Jones' success in Chicago may have caught lots of people off guard given that in 2005 they drafted Cedric Benson number 4 overall. After leaving the Bears, he had three more great years for the New York Jets, perhaps the best of his career, before finishing it off in Kansas City. He was also quite durable, in his final 9 seasons he played in a total of 141 out of 144 possible regular season games.
Selected Career Highlights
  • 10,591 rushing yards (27th all time, just after Jamaal Lewis and ahead of Tiki Barber)
  • 1,000+ rushing yards in 5 straight seasons (05 through 09)
  • Best Season 2009 - 1,402 rushing yards and 14 TDs
  • 1x Pro Bowl (2008)
  • 71 career TDs (68 rushing, 3 receiving)
Other Notes and News
  • Has a number of acting credits to his name after his playing career. Most notably in the Netflix adaptation of Luke Cage playing Darius "Comanche" Jones. Other shows in which he has made minor appearances are Bosch, Shameless, and in the NWA movie Straight Outta Compton
  • Will be donating his brain to the Sports Legacy Institute.
Final Note Thomas Jones was a durable and hard runner, who has been somewhat forgotten by time. That stretch from 2005 to 2009 was quite impressive, averaging 1,276 yards and 9 TDs per year. Topping 10,000 rush yards in a career is quite the accomplishment. Jones truly was better than we all remember, but never an all time great. Making him a perfect candidate for this series.
Past entries in this series Donald Driver Charles Tillman Simeon Rice
84 sats \ 1 reply \ @grayruby 4h
Definitely better than I remember. I like the change from hall of very good.
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Thanks, yeah the name just makes way more sense. It's kind of fun looking back at some of these forgotten players. Like I remembered Jones obviously but 20 years later I had not remembered his time overlapped the Bears drafting Cedric Benson and just how out of the blue Jones' breakout seemed to be.
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When I think of Thomas I think of the Bucs. But solid running back
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Bucs fan? That was his shortest stint, just a single season.
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Ahh on second thought I do remember him on the bears
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Yeah, he had some fantastic seasons. His Jets run was way better than I'd expected it to be.
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Great career
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