Cardinals wide receiver Zay Jones was suspended five games by the NFL on Friday for violating its personal conduct policy.
Though the Associated Press reported that the league didn’t provide a reason for the decision, Jones was arrested in November on a misdemeanor domestic battery charge that was eventually dropped.
Jones and the mother of his child — who was reportedly visiting Jones’ family — were allegedly arguing over custody last year, and it ended with “several small scratches” that resembled fingernail marks, according to an Associated Press story at the time.
Following one night in the Duval County Jail, Jones was reportedly released on a $2,503 bond, and in March, the charge was dropped because the state attorney’s office “declines to prosecute this defendant for these charges,” the AP reported.
The NFL’s decision means the Cardinals will be without Jones — one of their wideouts tasked with collecting targets from Kyler Murray behind No. 3 overall pick Marvin Harrison Jr. — for more than a month to open their 2024 campaign, with Jones eligible to return for Arizona’s Oct. 13 game on the road against the Packers.
“There’s a reason he’s played at a high level on a couple different teams in some different offenses,” Cardinals head coach Jonathan Gannon told reporters Friday, according to ESPN. “He picks things up really quick. He understands the nuances of what needs to get done from the receiver position. Can play all three. He’s been fantastic. High, high football IQ.”
Arizona opens the season with games against the Bills, Rams, Lions, Commanders and 49ers.
He appeared in 16 games for the Jaguars last year, collecting five touchdowns and a career-best 823 receiving yards before inking a one-year, $2.25 million deal with the Cardinals.
The yards marked Jones’ best since his second year in the NFL when he compiled 652 in 2018 with the Bills — the organization that drafted him in the second round out of East Carolina in 2017 — before then playing with three teams after the next four seasons.
In addition to Jones’ suspension, the league also announced that Rams offensive lineman Alaric Jackson has been suspended — for two games — for violating the NFL’s personal conduct policy, while cornerback J.C. Jackson, who remains unsigned with the regular season just weeks away, was suspended for Week 1, according to ESPN.
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