Ben Jones earned high marks for his toughness and intelligence during his first full season as the Texans’ starting center.

Jones played through a sprained medial collateral ligament in his knee along with an aching back, coach Bill O’Brien revealed Sunday one day after the Texans’ season ended in a 30-0 blowout loss to the Kansas City Chiefs.

“Tough guy, smart guy, and has played hurt,” O’Brien said of Jones.

Jones started every game despite invariably being banged up each week. He won’t require offseason surgeries, though.

“That’s just part of the business, I do whatever it takes to win,” Jones said. “I’m out there just trying to grind every week and do what it takes every week to go out there and try to get a win.

“I was pretty fortunate, just bumps and bruises that happened throughout the year, pretty healthy as of right now and just move on and go take care of business.”

Now, Jones’ four-year, $3.48 million rookie contract is expiring and he has hopes of returning on a potential new deal. There are no talks, but Jones is someone the Texans ideally would like to keep.

“I’ve done everything I can and it’s up to them right now,” Jones said. “You really don’t even think about it. Really I just come out here every day and try to get better and it’s the offseason right now so I’m going to try to heal up all my bumps and bruises and be ready when April or March comes around.”

Joned had a special role snapping to four different quarterbacks in Brian Hoyer, Ryan Mallett, T.J. Yates and Brandon Weeden. He also worked closely with them, meeting early in the morning to discuss pass protection and audibles.

“That was definitely one of my roles,” Jones said. “I’ve been in the system for two years and I’ve poured everything I have into it, and switching quarterbacks, we had to be on the same page and I knew that, so the extra meetings, the before and after practice that we spent the time to make sure everything went smoothly so we could be in the situation we were in yesterday.”

aaron.wilson@chron.com

twitter.com/AaronWilson_NFL