Marvin Jones had a sense early in free agency that a reunion could be in the works, and the more he thought about playing for the Detroit Lions again, the more he liked the idea.
Jones spent five of his best seasons in Detroit. His children called the area home from 2016-20. And when he returned to Ford Field for the first time last season with the Jacksonville Jaguars, he left feeling nostalgic.
“Just the love that everybody had, seeing familiar faces and giving everybody daps and hugs and stuff like that,” Jones said. “It was like, ‘Dang, it was my home for five years.’ I talked to my family and I was like, ‘OK, if I’m not going to play on the West Coast, the only team that I would go play for that’s not the West Coast is Detroit.’ After that, it really sunk in and I was like, ‘Man, this could be a thing.'”
Jones and the Lions officially became a thing again Wednesday when Jones signed a one-year deal worth up to $5 million to add another veteran presence to the Lions’ receiving corps.
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Jones, 33, caught 289 passes for 4,296 yards in his first stint with the Lions. He left as a free agent in 2020 and spent the past two seasons with the Jaguars.
Jones, who lives in San Diego, said he considered playing for several teams on the West Coast before deciding to return to the Lions while on a family vacation in Belize last week.
“From the start it was evident that they wanted me here, but it took me to try to see, try to see what I was going to do, stay on the West Coast or whatever,” Jones said. “That’s how free agency is, but I don’t know. I think when somebody wants you here, you automatically have that feeling, that sense of, ‘Oh, maybe I belong here, I’ve always belonged here,’ or whatever.”
Jones caught 119 passes in his two seasons in Jacksonville, led the Jaguars in receiving in 2021 and helped the team make a surprise playoff run this winter.
He said he’s the same downfield threat he was in his first go-round with the Lions — “I’m going to still move like I always do,” he said. “Y’all will see.” — but that the organization has changed dramatically in his two years away.
Signed to be the Lions’ No. 1 receiver after the abrupt retirement of Calvin Johnson, Jones was part of the last Lions team to make the playoffs in 2016. The team went 23-40-1 over the next four years and fired head coach Matt Patricia and general manager Bob Quinn during Jones’ last season in Detroit.
“It’s a new feel for sure,” Jones said. “And I think when I came here, the first thing everybody said is, ‘Hey, Marv, it’s different, you’re going to love it.’ The culture’s different, the coaches, everything. It’s not the same. So I think that was definitely one of the reasons why it was definitely appealing for me to come back here and, why not?”
Jones should play a supporting role this fall in a passing game that features Amon-Ra St. Brown, Jameson Williams and Josh Reynolds, three receivers added during his hiatus in Jacksonville, and quarterback Jared Goff, who Jones just missed playing with at Cal.
Jones said he joked years ago, after seeing Goff practice at Cal, that, “Man, I wish you were my quarterback.” Now, the two are teammates, and Jones will wear a new number — newly OK’d No. 0, after sporting No. 11 the past seven seasons — when catching passes from his fellow Golden Bear this fall.
Jones will become just the second Lion ever to wear the No. 0, joining fullback John Olszewski, who wore the number in 1961. Author George Plimpton also wore the No. 0 in the 1963 preseason while researching his book, “Paper Lion.”
The NFL approved No. 0 for use by non-linemen last week after taking the number out of circulation in 1973.
“It was a family decision,” Jones said. “They voted and I was just like, ‘Let’s do it.’ Be the first one to rock the 0 in Detroit, so why not?”
Contact Dave Birkett at dbirkett@freepress.com. Follow him on Twitter @davebirkett.