Redskins' bruiser Matt Jones embracing his new role

Redskins head coach Jay Gruden made no secret about the fact that he wants his team to establish themselves more on the ground this season. They have their main rusher firmly in place in Alfred Morris, who has never rushed for under 1,000 yards in each of his three professional seasons.

The newfound focus on the rush has been something Gruden and his associates have been talking about for most of the offseason in an effort to make the Redskins a physical team with control at the line of scrimmage.

But first they had to hedge their bets.

That physicality could come back to bite the rushing campaign the want to bolster. Morris is not the kind of runner who skirts around tacklers in search of that big hole, in the Chris Johnson or (recently) LeSean McCoy fold. Once he grabs the ball, he looks for trouble -- a north-south pounder who often carries easily through the first and second tackle attempts.

To preserve Morris long into the future, the Redskins looked to an able No. 2 rusher in April's draft to relieve him in certain situations, and came away with Florida tailback Matt Jones in the third round.

"A physical player and tough as crud," general manager Scot McCloughan said of Jones in the offseason. 

Listed at 6-foot-2, 213 pounds, Jones has lived up to expectations in training camp.

"So far, Matt's taken the right steps to take a little bit of the load off of Alfred," head coach Jay Gruden said. "If you want to commit to running the football, you gotta have a couple guys that can tote it."

Aside from that toughness, Gruden thinks the versatility that Jones can bring to the gameplan will help give their attackers a number of looks and create more problems for defenses.

"You think of him as a big, power-type back, but Matt's done some things out in space that have been very, very impressive, making moves on the second level, in the passing game, running some option routes on linebackers," Gruden added. "He's got natural hands."

Jones knows why the Redskins drafted him and doesn't want to disappoint them.

"I think that's what they drafted me for. I can add more size, more catching out of the backfield, more blocking. I feel like I can do it all and complement Alfred Morris at the same time. Alfred will be the starter, but I will compete with anybody."