Does Ronald Jones want his way off of Kansas City Chiefs roster?

Ronald Jones took to Twitter about wanting a release as the Kansas City Chiefs were in the bye week.

There are multiple ways to interpret the latest post from Ronald Jones and they can mean dramatically different things. But given the way this season has shaken out, and the public nature of things, it seems somewhat safe to infer that Jones might be dreaming of parting ways with the Kansas City Chiefs.

This year hasn’t worked out as anyone would have expected for Jones, fans included, after watching the young running back sign with the Chiefs back in the spring. The contractual terms themselves were telling at the time, as a single-season deal with only $750K guaranteed, but most fans were already dreaming of his powerful running style behind maulers like Creed Humphrey and Trey Smith and Joe Thuney up front within minutes of the news of his arrival.

Some early projections even had Jones as the Chiefs starting running back. Then the preseason happened. Jerick McKinnon was brought back for another year. Clyde Edwards-Helaire detailed how he was healthy for the first time in his career at that point. Isiah Pacheco was drafted and added to the mix. Suddenly a new committee was formed, and Jones look like he was on the outside looking in. In fact, it felt like Jones might not even make the team.

In the final preseason game, however, Jones put on a clinic for the Chiefs. Despite the presence of the others, Jones’ running style still felt different enough—and needed—to remain on the roster and he did. The stock seemed to be going up at the right time. Until it wasn’t.

Here we are at the season’s midpoint wondering if Jones is ever going to get any playing time. The Chiefs are happily rolling over most opponents with a committee approach that seems to be working just fine, except for Jones. And as the Chiefs are making roster moves—including a recent trade for Kadarius Toney—Ronald Jones decided to tweet this:

As we said, there are other ways to take this tweet, and certainly we have no business writing about those ends. But athletes know how these things will be taken when they post them and the circumstances around it all seem quite clear enough.

Is Jones hoping to be released by the Chiefs, especially when they have to make some roster cuts to make room for new additions? Toney has to be brought onto the official roster. Trent McDuffie has to return from injured reserve. Blake Bell and Lucas Niang are also on their way following the bye—on some vague timeline. In short, more than one person currently on the active roster will need to be turned loose.

Of all the players on the active roster, the fourth running back who is inactive for each and every game certainly makes a lot of sense. For Jones, he’s going to lose a lot of money on the open market if he does nothing but sit for the entire year on the bench after just turning 25-years-old to start the season.

The Chiefs just granted the release of another player—Daurice Fountain—in the name of finding playing time behind a loaded wide receiving corps. Will they do the same for Jones? Will they force him to sit in case of emergency? Or was Jones tweeting about something else entirely? The Chiefs will have to make some moves soon enough.