Just more than a year ago, the Packers helped lay the groundwork for a rough running back year. They reached a pay-cut agreement with Aaron Jones, ensuring he would stay for the 2023 season. That pact paid off, with Jones helping drive the team to the divisional round.
GM Brian Gutekunst said earlier this offseason the team planned to retain Jones, who is going into his age-29 season. But the Packers are interested in lowering Jones’ $17MM 2024 cap number. With this being the final year of the talented running back’s contract, such a reduction is a trickier matter.
Packers brass and Jones’ agent met Friday about making the change, per the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel’s Tom Silverstein. It is unclear how the sides plan to accomplish this goal. Also unclear: how motivated Green Bay is to make the move. An all-or-nothing effort on this front would naturally put Jones’ roster spot in jeopardy. An extension would help here, as going deeper into the void years well would increase dead money associated with the contract-year RB.
Jones accepted a $5MM reduction in exchange for an $8.52MM signing bonus last February. The void years from that adjustment run through 2027. Were Jones to depart as a free agent next year, the Pack would be hit with $6.6MM in dead money. Should Green Bay release the productive back now, a post-June 1 designation would probably be necessary. That would only leave the team with $5.7MM in 2024 dead money, while bringing more than $11MM in cap savings. That said, Jones remains a valuable piece and the only veteran presence among the team’s skill-position corps.
A four-year Packer contributor, AJ Dillon is on track for free agency. The between-the-tackles bulldozer is not expected to be re-signed, Silverstein adds. Although Jones battled hamstring and knee injuries in 2023, he returned and ripped off a borderline-dominant stretch to help the Packers make a late-season charge that ended with the team putting a scare into the eventual NFC champion 49ers in Round 2. Jones put together for five consecutive 100-plus-yard rushing games to close the season. Dillon did not fare as well in a contract year.
The former second-round pick averaged a career-low 3.4 yards per carry, scoring just two touchdowns. The Packers leaned on their experienced RBs last season, deploying a WR-TE contingent consisting entirely of first- or second-year players. Dillon totaled 1,573 rushing yards and 12 TDs between the 2021 and ’22 seasons, becoming a popular presence in Green Bay despite a limited pass-game skillset.
Jones is one of the game’s best dual-threat backs, and the Packers would certainly miss the former fifth-round pick if he was jettisoned. That said, a host of options will be available to RB-needy teams in free agency. That spells trouble for Dillon, who joins Saquon Barkley, Josh Jacobs, Austin Ekeler, Derrick Henry, Tony Pollard, D’Andre Swift and Gus Edwards as notable backs set to hit the market. The Bengals may add Joe Mixon to this list soon as well. This would help the team with Jones, who is due an $11.1MM base salary next season. Though, it is unclear if the Packers are planning another pay-cut ultimatum.
The Packers recently created some cap space by restructuring the contracts of Preston Smith and Rashan Gary, per ESPN.com’s Field Yates and NFL.com’s Tom Pelissero. The moves created more than $7MM in cap space together. Green Bay, which is also likely to release David Bakhtiari, currently holds just more than $14MM in cap room.
I could see the Pack trying to pry Kamara from the Saints
Why would they acquire another high priced running back whose best days are behind him? I see them as more likely to take a third round back to pair with Jones. Maybe someone with some size and power like Audric Estime, since they’re letting Dillon go.
Lmao nah
This actually makes less sense than the idea of signing Henry or Barkley to pair with Jones.
Running backs are like Benjamin the horse in Animal Farm… They do everything, block, run, catch passes, and then sent out to pasture, They take all the hard hits, get the most serious injuries, and then like Benjamin, broken down, age very quickly and then they are sent to the glue factory.
AJ Dillon is just a guy. The Packers should be using that roster spot for someone who can occasionally make a play on his own.
I bet they add more void years so they can continue to have at least $25M in dead cap money every year for the next decade.
They’re already at more than $15M this year, and that’s not counting the likely $20M hit when/if they move on from Bahktiari.
It’s really not a big deal. It’ll be their third straight year with those dead cap hits, and it will be moving on from their biggest free agent signing of the last many years, moving on from Rodgers, and moving on from Bahktiari. It’s not like they’re set up to have to do that again next year. They have the youngest roster in football, I think, will still have some cap space, and are already a playoff team with all the kids. They’re in a very good spot. I wouldn’t sweat the dead cap money.
It’ll be $35 million if in fact they cut ties with Bahktiari, and Campbell could add another $10M to this or next year’s total-I forget which. I haven’t looked at next year too close, but I believe any or all of Clark, Smith, Alexander and Jones (if they do what I’ve been reading they will do with him-again) could be another $25-$35M (or more-again..) is a big deal. That’s 1 elite player, or 2-3 solid regulars. Or a big chunk of the mega deal Love is most likely about to get. Nevermind all the others nearing extension time.
They’ll still be in fine shape. Other than Love, who’s nearing an extension that’s particularly big? Adding void years makes sense considering they have an enormous amount of cap space next year. Dead money in and of itself really isn’t that big a deal. It’s moving money around strategically, not costing themselves some major free agent they were never going to sign anyway. And again, it’s transitioning them to an incredibly young core. They can move dead money to next year and still have plenty of flexibility.
They want to give the Turd Love ab50 million per year deal
packers should restructure jones, let Dillon go and draft braylon allen in the 3rd or 4th round of he is there. Allen could be steal in the draft, plays a lot like Jonathan Taylor.