For the first time in his NFL career, Ben Jones did not finish a season on an active roster. Two concussions sustained roughly a month apart forced the Tennessee Titans to put their veteran center on injured reserve with three games remaining.
A little more than a month later, Jones is on a different roster for the first time.
The 33-year-old was named to the AFC Pro Bowl roster Monday. He replaces Kansas City’s Creed Humphrey, who will be unavailable because the Chiefs will be involved in preparations for Super Bowl LVII against the Philadelphia Eagles.
Jones becomes the fourth member of this year’s Titans selected to take part in the Pro Bowl Games, a reimagined version of the All-Star week that will feature a variety of games and skills competitions capped by a flag football game on Sunday.
Running back Derrick Henry, defensive tackle Jeffery Simmons and long snapper Morgan Cox were among the 44 players originally named to the AFC side.
Jones is an 11-year veteran who had missed just one game before this season. The first concussion caused him to miss two games in mid-November. He returned and played in three more games before he was injured again and shut down for the remainder of the campaign.
For his career, he has played 172 out of a possible 178 games plus seven more in the playoffs. He has been with the Titans since 2016 and has one year remaining on the two-year contract extension he signed with the Titans last month.
According to Pro Football Focus, he was among the top 10 centers in the NFL with an overall grade of 72.6 for the season for the 682 snaps he played, and his 74.5 run blocking grade ranked eighth at the position.
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