Zay Jones hoping to instill mentality of last year’s Raiders with this year’s Jaguars

By Case Keefer (contact)

Saturday, Nov. 5, 2022 | 2 a.m.

An interception with three minutes to go in last year’s Week 15 game at Cleveland threatened to end the Raiders’ postseason hopes prematurely, and Zay Jones blamed himself.

The then 26-year-old receiver said he was heartbroken and defeated heading to the FirstEnergy Stadium sideline after he slowed on a deep route to allow Browns cornerback Greedy Williams an easy takeaway on what looked like a Derek Carr overthrow. Jones had struggled for weeks after being thrust into a starting wide receiver role, and this miscue felt like the culmination of it all until he received some words of encouragement.

“Derek grabbed me and said, ‘I’m coming right back to you and you’re going to win this game for us,’” Jones recounted at the time. “It just re-ignited a fire in me.”

Las Vegas got the ball back inside the two-minute warning, and Jones caught three passes — though one was overturned for a holding penalty — to key a game-winning drive in a 16-14 Raiders’ victory. He was then awakened for the rest of the year, having his best stretch as a Raider as a tumultuous season turned magical with the Raiders winning three more straight games after the Cleveland trip to reach the playoffs.

Jones averaged six catches and 64 yards in the final four games — including a playoff loss to the Bengals — to lead the way to earning a big contract this offseason. He signed a three-year, $24 million pact with the Jacksonville Jaguars, whom the Raiders play on the road at 10 a.m. Sunday at TIAA Bank Field.

The Raiders were credited with contributing to the inflation of the wide receiver market this offseason for the five-year, $140 million contract they gave to Davante Adams, who filled the No. 1 wide receiver slot Jones held at the end of last year. But they were really linked to it a few days before the trade that sent Adams from Green Bay to Las Vegas.

The Jaguars are initially the team that sent values soaring when they committed much higher numbers than expected to a pair of veteran receivers in Jones and former Arizona Cardinal Christian Kirk, who signed a four-year, $72 million deal. Part of the reason they were drawn to Jones was not only his play but the way he carried himself in the Raiders’ past season full of tragedies.

“Adversity hit pretty hard but it was pretty easy to look around, left to right, to find people who were willing to fight for so I’m hoping I can bring that same sort of mentality to this group,” Jones said in his introductory news conference in Jacksonville. “When things get tough, when things maybe seem like they’re going South a little bit, let’s change the identity and move forward together instead of maybe what has been done in years past.”

Jones was never a star with the Raiders, but his place in history is secure as part of the original group that was along for the ride for the move to Las Vegas. He was one of the first players to move to town, buying a house in the area because he “wanted to plant some roots and really establish myself and become a part of this team.”

Jones might have been the only player who attended every one of Carr’s offseason throwing sessions at local parks and high schools. He scored the Raiders’ second touchdown in Allegiant Stadium history, one he followed with a viral hand-sanitizer celebration, in a 34-24 win over the Saints.

He had an even more memorable touchdown a year later when he caught a game-winning 31-yard bomb from Carr in overtime to beat the Ravens in Week 1 on Monday Night Football. That score was particularly meaningful considering many didn’t expect Jones to make the 2021 roster with the Raiders having signed more previously productive veterans like John Brown and Willie Snead, both of whom were later cut, going into training camp.

“He found a home here,” Carr said of Jones early last season. “I hope he finds a home here for a long time because I love that guy so much.”

That didn’t turn out to be possible but Carr’s not complaining after reuniting with his best friend in Adams. Meanwhile Jones has excelled in Jacksonville and is on pace for a career year with 34 catches for 309 yards and a touchdown through eight games.

And, sure enough, he’s putting lessons he learned with the Raiders into action just like he expected. He used an analogy about holding “a telescope/microscope-type perspective” he learned from last year’s interim coach with the Raiders, Rich Bisaccia, in his locker-room availability this week as a way to emphasize not looking too far ahead.

“You see the 5% out there (with the telescope) and then you come back to the microscope and the 95%,” Jones described.

Both the Jaguars and Raiders had big-picture goals this season that look to be in jeopardy. Las Vegas (2-5) thought it had upgraded from last year’s playoff team but it lost four of its first six games by less than a touchdown and then got blown out 24-0 at New Orleans last week.

Jacksonville (2-6) believed it was ready to contend in the AFC South under new, one-time Super Bowl-winning coach Doug Pederson and seemingly proved it by blowing out the Indianapolis Colts and Los Angeles Chargers a combined 62-10 in Week 2 and Week 3. The Jaguars haven’t won since then, however, with five straight losses by a touchdown or less.

“You do see similarities…a lot of close games,” Carr said this week during the Raiders’ stay in Sarasota, Fla. “Our records could have easily flipped with just a few things. Hopefully the more that we can as a collective do right, we can flip that, and they’re probably preaching the same things, as they should.”

Jacksonville might be preaching the same things because, if its locker room is anything like Las Vegas’, then one of the most respected members of the team went through the same things last year as all the holdover Raiders. The 2021-2022 Raiders might not have had a single more beloved teammate than Jones.

Expect a lot of postgame embraces and greetings on the field with Jones after Sunday’s game. As the Raiders’ look to turn their season around once again, they’ve got a lot of admiration for one player who personified last year’s run.

“I feel like my life has kind of worked in that cycle of going into a situation where maybe the light is not shining on me as much,” Jones said. "And I’ve just got to work and prove that and do the best I can to push forward and, by the grace of God, it’s happened to me, but now I have more prove still.”

Case Keefer can be reached at 702-948-2790 or [email protected]. Follow Case on Twitter at twitter.com/casekeefer.Case Keefer can be reached at 702-948-2790 or