Raiders put Chandler Jones on non-football injury list

LAS VEGAS — Nearly a month after a slew of disparaging posts about the Raiders began showing up on the social media accounts of Chandler Jones, the club placed the veteran defensive end on the non-football injury list Wednesday.

As a result, the roster spot Jones has been occupying for the past three weeks now opens up. Jones has been away from the club for nearly a month and has not played a snap in the first two games of the season. The list works almost exactly like the injured reserve list in that players are obligated to sit out at least four games upon being placed on it during the regular season.

The bizarre turn of events began in early September when a slew of angry posts from Jones showed up on his Instagram account. The gist of his outburst was that the Raiders had locked him out of their facility, and he could not get coach Josh McDaniels or general manager Dave Ziegler on the phone. After deleting those posts, he continued to vent on social media on a near daily basis.

The Raiders have treated the situation as a personal matter, including Wednesday when coach Josh McDaniels declined comment during his weekly news conference.

“I can’t do anything about it at this point,” McDaniels said when asked for an update on Jones. “We’re just respecting that process and understand the situation, and that’s really all I can say about it.”

A sampling of his posts included one that read: “It’s a shame that I am a top athlete with 112 sacks in the NFL and I have to go to a local gym to work out during the season for no apparent reason this is wild to me Josh and you know it you need to do what’s right.”

Jones also posted that he doesn’t want to play for the Raiders if McDaniels and Ziegler are running the team, and would prefer defensive coordinator Patrick Graham as the head coach.

Those posts, along with a slew of others, were quickly deleted either by Jones or someone close to him. But the damage had been done.

Jones, signed to a three-year, $51 million contract in March 2022, was a disappointment in his first season, registering just 4.5 sacks.

Nevertheless, the Raiders have missed a player they were counting on to begin the season. His spot on the depth chart has been shared among third-year defensive end Malcolm Koonce and rookie Tyree Wilson. Neither has made a significant impact.