Jaguars’ Jones-drew ends 38-day holdout

Rushing champion reports without a new contract

JACKSONVILLE, FLA. — Maurice Jones-Drew remains as passionate as ever about his value.

So when the Jacksonville Jaguars running back ended his 38-day holdout Sunday — without a new contract — he had no apologies, no regrets and no concerns about his standing with the franchise.

“I’m in a good place,” he said. “I did something I felt was right, and I’m always going to feel right. I’m not going to feel wrong for what I did it at all. And that’s why I can come back and not have a negative attitude. I think if you regret things, you’re going to come back salty, be a distraction, things like that.

“I don’t feel that way ‘cause what I did was right. No one can tell me it was wrong. Not one person here can tell me what I did was wrong.”

Jones-Drew arrived at the team facility Sunday morning, chatted with teammates and then had a 40-minute conversation with coach Mike Mularkey.

Later, he spent nearly half an hour answering questions about his holdout, even getting to a point where he told reporters to “make .sure we all get this out of the way because I’m done after this.”

“This is the last talk about the whole con- tract situation,” he said. “We’re going to more forward to football after this.”

Jones-Drew considered skipping games, missing paychecks and causing an even bigger distraction for the team. Ultimately, though, he opted to report a week before the season opener. Jacksonville plays at Minnesota next Sunday.

“It really wasn’t about budging,” said JonesDrew, who took a conditioning test later in the day. “For me, it got to the point where I wasn’t going to be traded. Obviously, they weren’t going to pay me. I could have easily sat out until Week 10, come back and been a distraction. It wasn’t about that. I’m not going to come back and distract guys from playing the game the right way.”

The NFL’s leading rusher in 2011, JonesDrew skipped the team’s entire offseason schedule in what became a nasty contract dispute.

Mularkey can fine MJD up to $30,000 a day — plus $60,000 for a threeday, mandatory minicamp in June — meaning the total tab could end up being $1.2 million. JonesDrew declined to reveal what he and Mularkey discussed regarding the potential fine.

Jones-Drew is scheduled to make $4.45 million in 2012 and $4.95 mil- lion next year.

He wanted to renegotiate the final two years of a five-year, $31 million deal that paid him nearly $22 million the last three seasons. Owner Shad Khan and general manager Gene Smith refused, not wanting to set a precedent of paying players in the middle of lucrative deals.

Coming off a career year, Jones-Drew wanted to be one of the NFL’s highest-paid backs. His average salary per year ranks behind Minnesota’s Adrian Peterson, Tennessee’s Chris Johnson, Philadelphia’s LeSean McCoy, Houston’s Arian Foster, St. Louis’ Steven Jackson, Carolina’s DeAngelo Williams and Seattle’s Marshawn Lynch.

Jones-Drew, 27, signed his deal in 2009, before rushing for at least 1,300 yards in three consecutive seasons. He had a leaguebest 1,606 yards on the ground in 2011. Not only has he seemingly outperformed his contract, Jones-Drew is the face of the franchise and probably the only player on the roster known outside small-market Jacksonville.

The Jaguars, though, felt like they paid him based on the expectation that he would flourish as a starter after spending the first three years of his career splitting carries with Fred Taylor. The team doesn’t want to pay a running back into his 30s, especially one who takes as many hits as Jones-Drews. Plus, the Jaguars have missed the playoffs in his three seasons as the starter.