"I don't care what I gotta do, I'm scoring this one. Four years in the league, man. It takes a while, but it's here. I scored on my wife's birthday tomorrow! That ball was for her… but that second one, that's mine."
Buy Saints TicketsTony Jones Jr. on scoring his first and second career TD 😂 pic.twitter.com/2clBRRiCVC
— New Orleans Saints (@Saints) September 19, 2023
Tony Jones Jr. probably didn’t wake up Monday morning expecting to play his best game in the NFL. Or maybe he did. The fourth-year pro certainly picked the perfect time to score his first touchdown in the NFL, hammering in a scoring run from the goal line against the Carolina Panthers.
Then he did it again, helping the New Orleans Saints knock off the Carolina Panthers in a 20-17 win that wasn’t as close as that final tally might lead you to believe. Either way, for Jones, the timing couldn’t have been better.
Jones reflected on his big day after the game, noting that he grabbed the best birthday present for his wife with that first scoring run: “I don’t care what I got to do, I’m scoring this one. Four years in the league, man. It takes a while, but it’s here. I scored on my wife’s birthday tomorrow! That ball was for her.”
So it’s fortunate that he happened to score again, meaning Jones and his wife will have a matching set of game balls: “But that second one, that’s mine.”
Jones first signed with the Saints as an undrafted free agent out of Notre Dame back in the 2020 season. He hung around for a while, only to be claimed off waivers by the Seattle Seahawks in 2022. The Denver Broncos signed him as a free agent this offseason, but he wasn’t brought back after roster cuts, and the Saints re-signed him to their own practice squad to open the 2023 season.
He’s been activated for each of their first two games, but he didn’t figure to see a heavy workload after totaling 9 snaps on offense in Week 1. But between an in-game injury to Jamaal Williams, Alvin Kamara’s ongoing suspension, rookie draft pick Kendre Miller being held out with his own injury, and the odd decision to deactivate Kirk Merritt, Jones suddenly found himself in the starting lineup midway through the second quarter.
And he responded by making the most of what his line blocked for him and, ultimately, punching in a pair of tough touchdown runs against a challenging Panthers defensive front. Jones deserves a ton of credit for stepping up in this situation. Players on the fringe of a roster like him don’t get many opportunities like this, and he seized it with both hands. Good for him.
