Tennessee Titans wide receiver Julio Jones had a rough debut with his new team, and it didn’t help that he committed a bad penalty during the team’s Week 1 loss to the Arizona Cardinals.
Jones tallied just three catches for 29 yards on six targets, but also had a pair of drops, one of which resulted in an interception after the ball hit off his hands and went up for grabs.
To make matters worse, Jones committed an unnecessary roughness penalty in the first quarter that sent the Titans from a third-and-1 to a third-and-16 with the team trailing 10-0. Tennessee would go on to punt after failing to convert the third-and-long play.
Head coach Mike Vrabel didn’t mince words about Jones’ penalty during his day-after press conference on Monday (video of Vrabel’s comment can be watched here, but contains NSFW language).
“That would fall into the category of doing dumb (expletive) that hurts the team, right there, in bold letters,” Vrabel said bluntly.
Mike Vrabel was rather critical of Julio Jones' personal foul call that resulted in a 3rd & 1 turning into 3rd & 16. #Titans pic.twitter.com/Bh8m60skuI
— TURRON DAVENPORT (@TDavenport_NFL) September 13, 2021
Hard not to agree with that statement. Jones is a veteran player who should know better than to put his team in that position.
When Jones came aboard, Vrabel made it clear that he’s always going to hold the best players the most accountable, and this is a perfect example of that approach.
