Arthur Jones released after disappointing 3 years with Colts

Defensive tackle Arthur Jones was released by the Colts on Friday, ending a disappointing tenure in Indianapolis. The former Raven started only 11 games in three seasons with the club, recording 34 tackles in the process.

Jones was a key free-agent signing for the Colts in 2014. The then-28-year-old bucked the franchise’s trend of bringing longtime veterans to the Midwest, standing out in a sea of players like Andre Johnson and Frank Gore. The 320-pounder won a Super Bowl with Baltimore in 2012 and developed into a reliable starter for one of the league’s top defenses before moving west.

He signed a five-year, $33 million deal with Indianapolis, but he failed to live up to the team’s lofty expectations. He played in only nine games his first season with the Colts, then missed all of 2015 due to an ankle injury. His 2016 was cut short as well — this time by a suspension for violating the league’s performance enhancing drugs policy, which cost him four games, then a season-ending ankle injury that cost him four more.

Cutting Jones removes his $7.35 million hit from the team’s salary cap, though it will still have to eat $2.2 million in dead money after the cut. At 30 years old, he’s young enough to bounce back from the issues that robbed him of the explosiveness that marked the early stages of his career. He’ll likely have to do it after a pay cut — with fewer than 12 tackles a year since 2014, Jones is no longer a $7 million player.