Robert Jones (65) on the sidelines after he had a significant contribution in the first half as the San Francisco 49ers played the Tennessee Titans in a preseason game at Levi’s Stadium in Santa Clara, Calif., on Thursday, Aug. 13, 2026.
Robert Jones (65) on the sidelines after he had a significant contribution in the first half as the San Francisco 49ers played the Tennessee Titans in a preseason game at Levi’s Stadium in Santa Clara, Calif., on Thursday, Aug. 13, 2026.
On Thursday, a few snaps into his first game in 585 days, San Francisco 49ers left guard Robert Jones got to line up against an old friend he’d trained with in Dallas.
That was the good news. The bad news: His buddy is Jeffery Simmons, the Titans’ All-Pro defensive tackle.
It wasn’t the ideal way for Jones to knock the rust off. On the ninth snap of the preseason opener, Jones was flagged for holding the four-time Pro Bowl pick, negating a 21-yard completion. But after the 49ers’ 19-13 loss was over, Jones was ebullient despite the infraction:
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He was back in the game after it appeared quite possible his career could be over.
“It feels really good to be back,” Jones said.
Jones, 27, signed with the 49ers in March after he missed last season with a severe neck injury, a fracture of the fifth cervical vertebra which he suffered in his first padded training-camp practice with the Cowboys on July 27, 2025. Jones was placed on injured reserve on Aug. 8 — the one-year anniversary was Saturday — and he spent the next five months in a brace.
Jones used a bone-stimulation machine to promote healing for four months, took regular hospital trips for two-hour stints in a hyperbaric chamber and he wasn’t permitted to run until he was medically cleared in March.
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In the early days, he wondered if, at 26, his NFL career was suddenly finished after four seasons.
“When they first told me I had broken my neck, the main questions were: ‘Do I really want to keep playing? ’ and ‘Am I going to be able to keep playing? ’” Jones said. “Those were questions
I had to work through during my journey. I also had to educate myself about the injury.
“But once the doctors said I should be good and there shouldn’t be any lingering issues, I decided that as long as I had an opportunity, I was going to keep playing.”
Jones, who started 30 games in his four seasons with the Dolphins (2021-2024), has an opportunity to earn a first-string role with the 49ers. Jones is currently the top candidate to win the 49ers’ only wide-open position battle in training camp. His competition includes Connor Colby, a 2025 seventh-round pick, and Carver Willis, a rookie fourth-round pick. Colby was recently demoted after opening training camp as the starter. Willis’ development has been delayed due to a concussion.
On Thursday, Jones admitted wondering if he was up for the battle just a few weeks ago.
“When we got to training camp and it was the first padded practice, it was in my head: ‘I do have to hit again,’” Jones said. “I was a little cautious, but once I got going, I felt good. After I got that first hit in, it helped my confidence. I knew I was good, I was healthy and I was able to do this.”
The fact that Jones is doing this in the NFL is wildly unlikely given his background. Jones didn’t play organized football until his junior year at Rockford (Ill.) East High School, didn’t play offensive line until his freshman year at Highland (Kan.) Community College and he wasn’t drafted after his two seasons at Middle Tennessee State.
“The NFL was never really on my radar,” Jones said. “I was really using football as a vehicle to get my degree. I tried to lock in on that while I was still learning the sport.”
Jones grew up in Chicago dreaming of becoming a basketball star. But that ended when he didn’t make his high school team. The message: He was too big. But the 280-pounder was soon approached by a football assistant coach, David Hamtpon, who was a former NFL running back.
“He told me, ‘Man, you’ve got to play football. You’re a walking meal ticket,’ Jones said.
It wasn’t immediately obvious. Jones was a backup defensive lineman who quit the team after about five games as a junior because, he said, his mom was “terrified” about her only son playing such a violent sport. After Jones returned to earn a starting role as a senior, he was moved to the offensive line when he arrived at Highland. It didn’t click overnight: He didn’t start until his sophomore year.
“After that,” Jones said, “the rest is history.”
That history includes last year’s painful chapter. Jones suffered his broken neck early in practice, but he was able to finish: He thought he’d suffered a shoulder stinger. Jones even did some post-practice work with a teammate before he finally went to the trainers, who sent him for a CT scan.
“That’s when they told me: ‘You broke your C5,’” Jones said.
A year later, after wondering if his next game would ever come, Jones was reflecting on his meetings with Simmons in the locker room Thursday night. His buddy got the best of him on one play, a moment that couldn’t erase Jones’ smile.
“Yeah, I had a couple snaps against Jeff — he’s tough,” Jones said. “But it just felt so good to get back into it.”
Aug 14, 2026
Eric Branch has covered the 49ers at the San Francisco Chronicle since 2011, when he arrived after covering the team in 2010 at the Santa Rosa Press Democrat.
A graduate of UCLA, he’s won nine national APSE awards in various divisions, including recognition in 2018 for a breaking-news story on the arrest of 49ers linebacker Reuben Foster. In 2024, he was named a finalist for the California Sportswriter of the Year award by the National Sports Media Association. In 2023, he received a first-place award in feature writing from the Pro Football Writers of America for a story on team pastor Earl Smith. Before covering the 49ers, he covered endless events, including archery tournaments and lawnmower races, while also working at the Logansport (Ind.) Pharos-Tribune, York (Pa.) Daily Record, Alexandria (La.) Town Talk and San Luis Obispo Tribune. He was included in the “Best American Sports Writing 2001,” under notable writing of that year, for a column on the joy and challenge of being a small-town sportswriter.
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