Kevin Jones is five months into rehabilitating an ACL reconstruction and a doctor says he is as much as seven months ahead of schedule. All he needs, according to mlive.com (what the hell is mlive.com?), he’s motivated and looking to show teams he is worth more than a minimum-level salary.

Now, Jones has always been injury prone. He hasn’t played 16 games in his four-year career and just last year came back early from a Lisfranc surgery on his left foot.

But when he is in there he’s shown flashed of brilliance as a runner and the ability to catch the ball out of the backfield. He’s motivated by the opportunity to show the Lions coaching staff they made a mistake by cutting him.

I think someone is going to take this guy to either split carries (Paired with Laurence Maroney in New England? Maybe he fits as another cog in Seattle in case Julius Jones is mediocre?) or as insurance (Rudi J in Cincy and Edgerrin James in Arizona have been trending downward) against an aging back sliding.

He could end up being a pretty good fit in Chicago too as Cedric Benson continues to disappoint and you never know with rookies, although Matt Forte is reportedly a guy the Bears staff is legitimately excited about.

I like this option the best. If the Bears were to bring in Jones and give him a chance to get some real carries, it still wouldn’t make the Bears a contender this year. But with the motivation of playing against the Lions twice, Jones would become a sleeper running back to watch out for in fantasy football drafts in the next couple of months.