Paul Kuharsky, ESPN Staff Writer 11y

What's Jones-Drew's future with Jaguars?

What’s the future of Maurice Jones-Drew and the Jacksonville Jaguars?

He played six games this season after a holdout that lasted nearly to the opener, suffering a left foot injury in Oakland.

The Jaguars and MJD held out hope he could return, but today they put him on IR in order to sign defensive tackle Jerome Long from Kansas City’s practice squad.

Later, news broke that the running back will have surgery on his foot that will keep him out until May.

He’s heading into the final year of his contract, a deal he wasn’t happy with when it had two years left on it.

The team won five games in 2011 with him producing at a very high level. The team will win two or three games in 2012 with him contributing little.

He’s a very good back, but he’s aging. And aging, bruising backs with high price tags are not hot commodities in the NFL.

He might have played his last game in Jacksonville.

We don’t know who’s going to be general manager and what his stance on Jones-Drew will be.

MJD could simply rehabilitate the injury and play out his deal. He trains in California, but told Jacksonville reporters he would not miss any mandatory offseason work.

Jacksonville could look to deal him as they continue to get younger, though the value of a running back coming off foot surgery won’t be particularly high.

Wherever he has a chance to take a handoff again, we can be sure he’ll be super-motivated to re-emerge and bowl people over again.

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