Tampa Bay Buccaneers: Ronald Jones ranked as worst starting running back

Running back Ronald Jones of the Tampa Bay Buccaneers was ranked as the league’s worst starting back by Maurice Jones-Drew despite not being the starter.

Here we go again; repeat after me: Peyton Barber is the starting running back of the Tampa Bay Buccaneers until further notice. Former NFL running back Maurice Jones-Drew took it upon himself to rank all 32 starting running backs, and named Ronald Jones as the 32nd ranked starter in the league.

One major problem, again, is that Jones is not the Buccaneers starting running back until he can prove to be more efficient to Barber. While Jones has looked impressive so far this offseason, the pads have yet to come on and he still must prove he deserves more than 30 reps in a season.

"“The Bucs’ ground game struggled in 2018 ranking 29th in the league, and was led by Peyton Barber. Barber re-signed to a one-year deal this season, but I expect Jones to emerge as the team’s top back in 2019 because, well, he wasn’t drafted 38th overall in ‘18 for no reason” (Jones-Drew via NFL.com)."

Yes, the reason that Jones will start for the Buccaneers in 2019 is because he the team will give him the job for being a second round pick. While trending in the right direction, he still has a long way to go before taking over the starting role from Barber.

While Barber too was not great in 2018, to assume Jones will be given the job because of where he was drafted is a bit of a stretch from MJD. Jones certainly could not put together a more putrid season than he did a year ago, and the Buccaneers are hoping a change in blocking schemes up front will elevate both Jones and Barber in 2019.