Jacksonville Jaguars running back Maurice Jones-Drew ended his holdout Sunday without a contract. He had no regrets, no apologies, no concerns about is standing with the franchise, and is still as passionate as ever about his value.
"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 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 showed up at the team facility on Sunday morning, talked with teammates and subsequently had an approximately 40-minute discussion with Coach Mike Mularkey.
The Pro Bowl running back had thought about missing games, skipping paychecks, and being an even larger distraction for the squad. However, he ultimately chose to report a week before the start of the season. The Jaguars play at Minnesota next Sunday.
"It really wasn't about budging," said Jones-Drew, who went through 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."
COWBOYS: Tight end Jason Witten won't know until Tuesday whether he'll be cleared to play in the season opener against the Giants. Witten is scheduled to have a CT scan prior to the team's departure for New York to determine if his lacerated spleen is healed. Witten had limited practice Sunday, but says he's doing all he can to be ready to play if he is cleared.
RAVENS: The team signed former New England Patriots safety James Ihedigbo. He started 12 games last season for the Patriots. He had 69 tackles and one pass deflection. The 28-year-old made the announcement Sunday on his personal Twitter page. After going undrafted in 2007, Ihedigbo signed with the New York Jets and spent his first four NFL seasons there. After his 2011 season in New England, he was re-signed in June before being released on Friday.