Pittsburgh Steelers OLB Jarvis Jones' wrist injury continues to linger

It has been 335 days, or 11 months and two days, since Jarvis Jones injured his wrist during a sack/fumble play that forced a Cam Newton turnover against the Carolina Panthers back on September 21, 2014.

And Jones still feels the affects of this injury.

Jeremy Fowler with ESPN reported today that while Jones has no problem with contact and playing physical football, he has yet to regain full mobility in his wrist.

"After being in a cast and all the scar tissue, that's what I'm still working on," Jones said. "Not so much rehabbing but taking care and nurturing it and trying to get my mobility in it. They say I won't get it all back but I'm trying to make the most of it."

The 2013 first round draft pick out of the University of Georgia suffered a serious wrist injury in 2014 that sidelined him for nine games and hindered his playing ability for the rest of the season after requiring surgery. His injury led to the return of James Harrison to the Steelers, a player whom Jones is now in competition with for playing time.

Though Jones does not fear contact, he does acknowledge the problems that have come with his injury and the adaptations to his game he's had to make to work around it.

"At my position, it's all hands. I'm making contact when the ball's snapped."

The key for Jones is honing his technique so he can be a consistent pass rusher for Pittsburgh, while also being a solid player to turn back running backs inside into traffic, rather than surrender the corner and allow for more yards. All indications suggest he knows what he needs to do to be effective in Keith Butler's defense.

"Just trying to play my technique, be sound with my technique and keep working hard, not doing anything outside of the system and along the way making plays with it," Jones said. "Here it's all about the individual doing the right thing, so the defense can work."

Steelers fans have been waiting to see something substantial from Jones since he was drafted, but have only seen flashes of positive plays from him. Jones thinks that all could change soon with Butler using him as a pass rusher in more situations and we see "things open up a lot more" for the defense once the season starts.

Steelers fans everywhere hope that is the case.