Maurice Jones-Drew decides to skip Jaguars’ mandatory minicamp

The Jacksonville Jaguars took a strong stance on Maurice Jones-Drew's contract situation, so the star running back made his feelings equally clear without saying a word.

Yesterday Jones-Drew skipped the opening day of a mandatory minicamp, showing just how unhappy he is about his current deal and he has no plans to join the team for any part of the three-day practice session.

Jaguars coach Mike Mularkey can fine Jones-Drew up to $60,000 if he misses the entire camp.

"Obviously I would have liked to have had him here a long time ago," said Mularkey. "I'm trying to focus on the guys that are here, similar in talking about the guys that do it right on the weekends. Basically the same thing. The guys who show up here have gotten a lot done for us in all phases. Those are the guys I want to talk about. Write a good story about good things for them that are happening," he added.

The star running back is coming off a career year, he led the NFL in rushing last season with 1,606 yards. Jones-Drew has two years remaining on a five-year contract worth $31 million and he is scheduled to make $4.45 million this season and $4.95 million in 2013.

His contract currently ranks eighth among NFL running backs behind Adrian Peterson, Chris Johnson, LeSean McCoy, Arian Foster, Steven Jackson, DeAngelo Williams and Marshawn Lynch.

Jaguars general manager Gene Smith made it that the team has no plans to renegotiate with Jones-Drew. "He has expressed that he would like to renegotiate and we have expressed again that we feel he has a contract with two years left that we expect him to fulfill those obligations," Smith said.

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