The Stamps have a ‘Next Man Up’ mentality when it comes to injuries.

So it was no surprise that when Pierre-Luc Caron went down during the team’s home-opening victory against the Ottawa RedBlacks June 29, linebacker Riley Jones was able to step up when the team needed him to fill in at long-snapper.

“I’ve been doing it for a while,” Jones explained. “I did it for two years at UBC and here, I did it for all of rookie camp and training camp and up until now.”

“(Caron) went down around the second or third quarter and I got two punt snaps in, so it felt good,” said Jones. “This isn’t anything new to me, I’ve been doing it for a while, and I’m just going to go out there and do my job.”

As a rookie last season, Caron burst onto the scene and immediately took over the Stamps long-snapping duties. He played in every single game, including playoffs, and was a big piece of the Stamps’ special-teams unit.

Entering this season, he was the man to beat. But Jones, an undrafted rookie out of the University of British Columbia, gave him a good run for his money.

Riley Jones. (Photo by Rob McMorris)

“He was right in the battle in training camp with P.L.,” said special-teams coordinator Mark Kilam. “We feel that he’s got the skill level and the wherewithal to get the job done. He was in the mix all the way through camp and he was even leading it at one point, so we’re not hesitant at all to put Riley in there. We’re confident in his abilities.”

“Pierre-Luc’s been the guy,” said Jones, a 23-year old native of Mississauga, Ont. “But I was told that I’d have to step in if anything happened to him and that’s the case right now.”

With Caron not participating in practice on either Monday or Tuesday this week, it’s still up in the air as to whether he will play against the  Blue Bombers on Friday in Winnipeg.

“He’s certainly not out yet, but for Riley, it doesn’t hurt him to get out there,” said head coach Dave Dickenson. “We certainly feel like we have two good guys this year. If P.L. can’t go, Riley is the guy.”

No matter what the decision ends up being for Caron, Jones will be ready to go.

“That’s why he’s here,” said Kilam. “He’s a skilled player, he’s a capable big-four player that plays on all the other special teams and then, if we did have a situation, he jumps right in and we don’t think twice about it. That’s the type of athlete he is and all the credit to Riley.”