It appeared that the Las Vegas Raiders had the Chandler Jones situation under control after he deleted a number of Instagram posts on September 5 where he appeared to be upset with the team and no longer wanted to play with them. However, he wasn’t at practice the following day and he was back to posting on Instagram with some troubling messages.
His first post since the controversy wasn’t controversial as he just wrote, “God is good, all the time” on his X account.
It didn’t take long for him to start talking directly about the Raiders on his Instagram account. Though he has since deleted the Instagram posts, many of them were screenshotted and shared on X.
Jones shared a picture of a badge from a Las Vegas Crisis Response Team professional and claimed that the Raiders sent her because he was “in danger.”
He then posted an ominous video where he said that TMZ reached out to him and that he had pictures and text messages, which sounded like a threat to Raiders head coach Josh McDaniels and general manager Dave Ziegler.
Jones also posted what appears to be a text message conversation with McDaniels where the coach asks the defensive end to “please be available if Dave or I or anyone else from the organization reaches out.” Jones accused the coach of talking to him like he was an “item. He then threatens to share more videos if he can’t play Sunday against the Denver Broncos.
Las Vegas Raiders Mum on What Happened With Chandler
The initial incident from September 5 appears to stem from Chandler Jones not being able to access the team gym. However, there has to be more to the story but the Raiders aren’t sharing. Josh McDaniels wasn’t willing to give any details about what was going on.
“It’s a personal situation and a private matter,” McDaniels told reporters during his September 6 media availability. “We have dealt with it, and I am not going to talk about it.”
Team captains Maxx Crosby and Davante Adams were also mum on the situation. The Raiders must be concerned if they sent a CRT member to Jones’ home but until somebody gives more details, it’s a difficult situation to speculate about.
Highly Unlikely Chandler Jones Plays in Week 1
As Chandler Jones noted in his Instagram posts, he’d like to play in the Week 1 game against the Broncos. Any chance of that happening effectively ended when he decided to get back on social media to call out his head coach and general manager. It remains to be seen what the Raiders might do but a suspension is certainly possible.
Not only is this a blow to the team off the field, it hurts them on the field. Jones is coming off his worst year as a pro as he only had 4.5 sacks but he was motivated for a bounce-back year and was slated to start opposite Maxx Crosby. This will hurt the team’s plans for rookie defensive end Tyree Wilson. That said, having Wilson gives the Raiders a high-upside replacement for Jones until the situation is resolved. The biggest question now is whether or now Jones will ever play for the Raiders again.
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This article was originally published on Heavy.com