Doug Pederson: All injured Jaguars except Zay Jones are doing well

The Jacksonville Jaguars are close to having a clean bill of health after their Week 9 bye allowed the team some much-needed rest and recuperation. The exception, according to coach Doug Pederson, is wide receiver Zay Jones.

“All of them except Zay are doing really well,” Pederson said Monday. “Zay is just going to be day-to-day, got a little workout in today, feeling a little bit better, but we’ll just monitor him day-by-day. He’s getting better.”

The veteran wide receiver suffered a knee injury in Week 2 and missed two games. While he returned to action in Week 5, Jones re-injured the same knee and was out of action for another three games. It seemed Jones was close to a return near the end of October, but the receiver continued to be held out of practice.

While Pederson said that Jones is “getting better” he also acknowledged that the lack of progress made by the receiver means the injured reserve can’t be ruled out.

“We just got to see,” Pederson said when asked about Jones potentially landing on IR. “We’re getting close but that’s something that we’ll evaluate if it looks like it’s anything further than or any longer than what it already is.”

In three games this season, Jones has eight receptions for 78 yards with two touchdowns. His absence from the offense hasn’t just kept a target off the field for Trevor Lawrence, it has also allowed defenses to devote more resources to slowing Calvin Ridley.

In the three games with Jones on the field, Ridley averaged 85 receiving yards. In the other five games, Ridley averaged 39.2 yards.

Jones finished the 2022 season as the Jaguars’ second leading receiver with 82 receptions for 823 yards and five touchdowns.