Raiders To Increase Taiwan Jones Workload

Raiders second-year running back Taiwan Jones took first team reps during Wednesday’s practice, per Paul Gutierrez of CSNBayArea.com.

“He’s been a little up and down,” Raiders head coach Dennis Allen said of Jones, via Gutierrez. “A little injury-prone, or injury-plagued, and so it’s been kind of tough to evaluate because he’s missed some time. But we’ve got confidence in Taiwan and if he’s called on to step in and play, then we fully anticipate him stepping in and perform and do his job.”

Jones has exceptional speed, but like Dennis Allen said, he is injury prone and struggles to hold onto the ball. He should see a big increase in his role with the offense, but don’t be surprised if he used more as a change of pace back rather than the Raiders feature back. It’s worth noting that when running backs Darren McFadden and Mike Goodson left last week’s game with ankle injuries, Marcel Reece received more playing time than did Jones.