The 2023 offseason involved multiple teams moving pricey running back contracts off their payroll, while others — the Packers included — reached pay-cut agreements with veteran starters. Aaron Jones‘ contract runs through 2024 and sees its cap number increase significantly, seemingly putting the accomplished back on unstable ground.
GM Brian Gutekunst may be putting a stop to talk of Jones leaving Green Bay, however, indicating (via The Athletic’s Matt Schneidman) the Packers “absolutely” expect their starting running back to be on the 2024 roster. Jones has been with the Packers since 2017. Of the deep 2017 RB draft class, only he, Alvin Kamara and Joe Mixon remain with the teams that selected them.
Jones agreed to take a $5MM pay cut last February, with that deal adding an $8.52MM signing bonus. The restructure added void years to the veteran back’s deal and trimmed his 2023 cap figure to $8.2MM. The cap hit spikes to $17MM in 2024, potentially pointing to another Packers move to address their top RB’s deal.
“He was such a difference-maker when he was out there this year, the way our offense was able to move,” Gutekunst said. “He changed a lot of the way we operated when he was in there and when he was healthy. He’s just really the heartbeat of our team.”
A Jones extension would make sense, as the void years on the current deal would bring a $6.6MM dead-money hit if he is not re-signed before the 2025 league year. Though, teams are no longer making a habit of reupping backs in their late 20s. The Packers gave Jones a four-year, $48MM deal just before free agency in 2021, changing course after several years of not paying running backs. The NFL largely opted to squeeze RBs last year, bringing another value drop for a position long past its prestige peak.
Jones, 29, missed time this season due to MCL and hamstring issues. These injuries caused the seven-year veteran to miss six games. But the UTEP alum proved effective when available, finishing the season surging. Returning to action in Week 14, the former fifth-round pick closed the season with five consecutive 100-yard rushing performances. This counted two in the playoffs, springing the Packers past the Cowboys and nearly upsetting the No. 1-seeded 49ers six days later. Jones’ veteran presence certainly helped a Packer team reliant on nothing but first- or second-year pass catchers.
AJ Dillon is coming off a sluggish contract year, being set to hit free agency at a bad time — as a crowded RB market is set to form. Jones being released — a move that would come with $12MM in dead money without a post-June 1 designation — would send him to a market that could well house Saquon Barkley, Josh Jacobs, Derrick Henry, Austin Ekeler, Tony Pollard and D’Andre Swift. Dillon is unlikely to secure a lucrative deal on this market. The Packers losing Jones would also create a major need, albeit at a position that is among the easiest to fill.
Additionally, Gutekunst made an effort to cool down Jaire Alexander trade rumors. The longtime Packers GM said, via Schneidman, no consideration is being given to trading Alexander. Following Alexander’s coin-toss fiasco that led to a one-game suspension, a report injected doubt about the highly paid cornerback’s Wisconsin future. The Packers owe Alexander an $8MM roster bonus on March 20.
The Packers gave Alexander a four-year, $84MM extension — one that remains the NFL’s high-water AAV mark for corners — in 2022 but have seen the former first-round pick miss extensive time due to injuries over the past three seasons. After a shoulder malady cost Alexander most of the 2021 season, he missed 10 games this year. That and the costly contract dent Alexander’s trade value. That said, Pro Football Focus rated the six-year veteran in the top 25 at the position this season.
If he runs like he did in the lead up to the playoffs and the playoffs rework the deal and keep it rolling.
Let Dillon go. He was one of the worst picks in recent memory for the Packers. Especially considering he was 250 pounds coming out of college and in every game I have seen him play in he still thinks he is in college where he can just run over guys without technique and then fails on short to go runs.
So glad the Jaire rumors are closing. With Joe gone let Jaire follow the lead receiver and let him do what he does best. Healthy he is a top 3 corner in the league. He’s just never healthy, ever.
@Macbeth I don’t understand this notion most Packer fans have that AJ Dillon was some trash player. He had a down year, that is the typical lifespan of running backs in the NFL. The average running back breaks down after three years. AJ Dillon had almost 500 more rushing yards, more rushing yards/attempt, and six more rushing touchdowns in four years than Jamaal Williams had in four years with the Packers, and everyone was PO’d that the Packers didn’t resign Jamaal.
Is it because AJ was a second round pick? It’s not his fault there were not a lot of good running backs in the draft that year and that he came into a situation where there were two established players already at the position. The only running back you could say that was slightly better in the draft was Antonio Gibson who went four picks later. So it is safe to say if the Packers waited to take a RB in round three there would be no decent RBs left. Probably why they reached on him. I understand people are always wondering “what have you done for me lately”, but Dillon’s 2021 and 2022 seasons were great for a non-feature back, and he didn’t get to become “Mayor of Door County” for nothing.
Dillon was a perfectly good number two running back his second and third year, but he’s finishing his rookie contract with fewer than 600 carries. That’s very little mileage to get out of a second round RB. He was 113th on The Athletic’s consensus big board and the Packers took him at 62. To reach that far for a running back with no pass catching experience in college is just a poor value, especially when they had a starting running back. I think Dillon added to people’s frustration that they took a backup QB in the first round. Obviously Love looks great now, but it took until this year for Green Bay to even get a second starter out of that draft, and the first one was Runyan. But anyway, none of that is Dillon’s fault. He didn’t overdraft himself. He’s a perfectly solid complementary back when healthy.
I have issue with the first three picks of the 2020 draft class. I will state now that Love might just work in their favor but I will always wonder otherwise.
They were coming off of a season where they were a game away from playing in the super bowl and drafted a QB who didn’t dress that year, a RB who was 3rd on the depth chart that year, and a TE who was third on the depth chart that year.
I understand that as a newer GM and HC you need to balance immediate vs. future but this draft class was an absolute disaster for 20, 21, 22, and finally saw light in 23.
Dillon if you also bring into account receiving TDs he equals the same totals of Williams in 4 years. That isn’t to say that we should’ve kept Williams it is more just to say that they are pretty close in production overall. Yards from scrimmage goes to Dillon by one or two hundred.
If Dillon was a monster we don’t have this conversation but I really think he has been a waste of a pick considering who was drafted after him at other need positions or that the pick could have been used to move up for a player. Imagine a trade up where we get Jefferson or Aiyuk.
Aiyuk at that 2020 season would have finished as the #2 receiver for the packers with MVS having sub 700.
Love, Dillon, and Deguara for me will always represent a missed chance to add and go all in when instead we retreated and ended up with hoping Love would eventually be good when he got a chance and even after this season for him I still wonder if we had more weapons for Rodgers that actually saw the field in 2020 if we would have done more.
Yeah, it’s always been hard not to wonder what would have been if Rodgers had Higgins or Pittman instead of a backup. It’s hard to complain about Love now that he looks great, but drafting a backup RB in the second round is just bad value. Serviceable running backs are everywhere.
Even with Love looking amazing this year, I will ALWAYS wonder. Maybe if he wins a chip I won’t.
The fact is that Gute misplayed his drafts in 2020 as I mentioned and in 2021 taking Meyers over Humphrey was an incredible oversight and Amari Rodgers I don’t even need to say more there. Then allowing Adams to dictate his own departure and we haven’t seen a receiver hit over 1,000 that isn’t Adams since Jordy probably if I guess correctly.
Yeah, hindsight is 20/20, but Humphrey was the consensus better prospect at the time by a pretty wide margin. And while I had no sense Nico Collins would be as good as he was this year, drafting a 5’9 receiver with bad hands four picks ahead of him sure must sting.
Their pass catcher group is looking very good now, though, even if there might not be a true ace in the group.
And I get where you’re coming from with Love. The last stretch of this season he looked so good that it would have to forgive everything else, but Rodgers having Higgins or Pittman as his number two receiver would have been killer. And again, that would have been going with the common sense consensus at the time, not just hindsight.
I don’t agree about Dillon being awful, but i do certainly about the wasted draft. This is, mind you, no fault of Love’s, as he has thankfully seemed to have learned a lot from his time on the bench. However, the Packers had two great chances to win a Superbowl in those two years, losing very winnable NFC Championship games. We can blame Rodgers all day long, because that’s what people do, but I fundamentally cannot understand why a G.M. would refuse a chance to make his team better. It’s not about Rodgers, it’s about taking every opportunity to make the team as a whole better. It only improves your chances to win, and the Packers gave up those chances to compete better.
To me, it feels like the standard Packers practice of old-give up the now, and say that you’re building for the future. At least Love looks good these days, so it’s not a complete waste. If Love had been awful this year, it’d be much worse.
Extend Jones for 2 more years to lessen his cap hit, then if he falters cut him loose at age 32. Draft a RB this draft. Give Jaire another year to prove he is healthy with a new coordinator who will hopefully let him shadow the opponents best WR. We will have enough change in the secondary this offseason with almost all our safeties hitting the market, Keep Jaire and start drafting S replacements for this new DC to develop.
More man to man coverage with the new DC compared to the soft zone coverage that Barry had, it should bring out the best in jaire all we need then is a good safety which I don’t think we have in savage. Moving gary to DE look for him to have a breakout year
When Jones is interested he still looks like a capable player. I don’t think he still has any long runs in him, but he knows how to find an 8 yard gain if it is offered.
So, judging by how accurate this one was, should we just assume Alexander is getting traded anyways?