Getty Former Las Vegas Raiders head coach Jon Gruden.
The Chandler Jones saga continues. The Las Vegas Raiders defensive end is away from the team right now as he deals with personal issues. His absence stems from a series of Instagram posts on September 5 where he aired out issues with head coach Josh McDaniels and general manager Dave Ziegler and suggested he didn’t want to play with the team anymore.
This led to him being kept away from the team all week and he’s officially been ruled out for the Week 1 opener against the Denver Broncos. That wasn’t enough to keep him off social media. He’s been less aggressive against the Raiders in recent days but he has made a series of odd posts on his X and Instagram accounts.
One of them was a screenshot of a text message to former Raiders head coach Jon Gruden that he has since deleted. Raiders Report Mitchell Renz was able to screenshot the posts before they were deleted, including one from September 10 where he said he “almost called John Gruden.”
Chandler Jones has deleted the following tweets about Jon Gruden and I think it’s because I told him he spelt his name wrong.
Gruden is currently out of the NFL as he is suing the league. Jones has never been part of a Gruden team so it’s unclear what their relationship is. It’s also unclear why Jones would think to reach out to him as Gruden hasn’t been with the team since he resigned early in the 2021 season. Regardless, this is another odd twist to an odd storyline that still has many question marks surrounding it.
Chandler Jones Posts Apparent Message From Mark Davis
One of Chandler Jones’ biggest issues is that he’s not able to play with the Raiders in Week 1. He’s made it clear that he wants to play in a series of posts. He even posted in a September 10 Instagram story what appears to be a text message exchange with owner Mark Davis where he tells Jones that he’s there for him and how much he respects every player who plays for the Raiders.
He also included a caption that said, “Y’ALL ASK EM IF I CAN PLAY.”
Reminder: #Raiders DE Chandler Jones won’t play against the Broncos today. Early this morning, Jones posted what appears to be a text exchange with owner Mark Davis on Instagram. When the exchange happened is unclear.
The Raiders have already left for Denver without Jones and he’s been officially ruled out. It would be far too late for the team to reverse course on that. However, the long-term issue is still unclear so he could be fighting for his shot to return next week.
Chandler Jones Continues to Post
When Chandler Jones was playing in the NFC West as an Arizona Cardinals, he compiled 14.5 sacks on quarterback Russell Wilson while he was with the Seattle Seahawks. Now Wilson is on the Raiders’ Week 1 opponent and Jones believes he would’ve been able to add to his career sack total on the Pro Bowler, per a September 10 X post.
Jones hasn’t gotten the hint and continues to post quite a bit. He responded to an X post and seemed to agree with the notion that he should just get a slap on the wrist from the team.
He also made a cryptic post that says, “No one is above the law.”
It’s unclear what that was in reference to but it doesn’t seem like Jones has any plans to step away from social media right now.
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Chandler Jones Attempted to Reach Out to Ex-Raiders HC Jon Gruden