Washington Redskins third round pick, running back Matt Jones is gaining a reputation early for his style of play … And he’s yet to practice with pads on.

“We drafted him for a reason,” said head coach Jay Gruden of Jones. “He’s a big, physical back and he will take some pressure off of Alfred a little bit.”

Jones isn’t viewed as an Alfred Morris, who is entering a contract year, replacement. The rookie out of Florida will spell the Pro-Bowler.

“In practice when Alfred breaks a long one, usually we put another back in there right away. I wouldn’t read anything into that. Alfred has had as good a camp as anybody in this building and I’ve been very, very impressed with Alfred, as I always am. He comes to work. He’s always on time. He’s always working hard, and at practice he’s always finishing runs and doing a great job in pass protection, so it’s going to be hard to take any reps from him.

“But when he does get tired or fatigued or what have you, we won’t hesitate at all to put Matt in there. He’s done a good job. There’s still some things he has to clean up, and then once we get the pads on in the live action, we’ll see how he does with his pad level and all that good stuff. But he’s done an excellent job picking up the system.”

That style of play isn’t just about the power he runs with or his quick cutting ability, despite checking in at 6-foot-2 and 235-pounds.

Jones has been running over defenders and initiating contact in workouts, ones that are deemed non-contact.

“It’s a fine line, because you never want your back to run straight up and down, you know what I mean? Because they’ll get slaughtered. But when he runs with his pads down, he’s banging into everybody and it’s against the CBA rules – there’s no contact.

“[Last week] he ran up there straight up and [Adam] Hayward butted him up, so you know, ‘Get your pads down.’ ‘What?’ [Jones replied]. So it’s confusing, but I think once we get the pads on and he gets popped a few times if he’s running too high, he’ll realize to get his pads down, but he’s a big, strong individual.

“Even when he does run vertically, he has the strength and power to run through tackles, which is interesting. He’s been very impressive to us. His running style is unique. It’s a physical style, but he does have good change of direction – he’s shown that out in space – and good hands.”

