As a fan, I want AJ back. He was the MVP of the offense this year.

If I was AJ, I might consider a pay cut if #12 first took a sizable slice after his '22 performance.

But if not, get paid as agreed or move on.

AJ in his prime and owns a great resume of production, even with MLF giving him limited touches. He will be an attractive FA with all his skills and high character.

Aaron Jones is one of my favorite players and is one Packers I would have loved to see start and end his career in Green Bay. Jones IS a Green Bay Packer. He obviously loves the Packers and the fans. But in todays games what should happen isn't always what happens.

IMO had Brian Gutekunst been given the SAME opportunity that Ron Wolf and Ted Thompson had, I think Jones would have retired a GBP without a doubt. A nice reminder of Ted's abilities to pick an absolute STEAL in the 4th and 5th rounds of the NFL draft. But Gute hasn't been afforded the same opportunities. Nope, Gute and Packers Nation have had to put up with Mark Murphy's NEED to be Jerry Jones (Without all the money) and muck it all up.

AS much as I hate to say it, I'd trade Aaron Jones. He had a great season, he has NEVER been over used, and someone would give up a decent draft pick for Jones. The Packers need picks, but they also need to dump high cap numbers. It starts with Jones which sucks. Our job as fans is we make sure EVERYBODY knows it was Murphy's fault!

Sorry, DP...

There is No questioning his heart. He can change a game. Great teammate.
Still- Pay cut coming.- His hands were less than stellar.
His fumbles shifted the momentum. He'll never move the pile.
( Yet- he's still a threat when the OL is winning. )
It's time. - Maybe time to even replace him. He'll never be one of the greats.
We've had great tandems. But Jones and Dillion isn't one of them.
There's still something missing. Jones is still a speedy back.
But- We still need a guy to push the pile. Automatic!
Shove it down their throats! Balance!
Both Jones and Dillion have lost their balance. And seem light on their feet.
I Expected a running attack like Ahmad Green. Even- A one,Two punch.
It's just not Going to happen. Jones needs fixing. Stopping the fumbles is priority one.
The hands are No longer soft. And his size has cost Rodgers more than one catch.
Their cheery picking his time for success. And I'm not seeing that GIVE me the Ball.

Jones means to much to the offense to cut. Sure they could draft a RB and have some success. But Jones is a core piece of the offense. His ability to be used as a RB and WR is too much to replace. So they need to find a way to restructure his contract if they need money. But they can't cut him.

If the Packers are looking for some financial clawback, ring up Clark and Bakhtiari first.

We know Rodgers isn't going to do anything to help the cause because he's so god damm self-absorbed, and it's nuts to think about going after some coin from Jones, the one guy out of those four who played better and meant more to the team.

This is not the year to cut a RB who produced 73 FDs, 7 TDs, and 1500 yds of offense. There are other players on this team who have not earned their contracts, but not Jones.

Offensive coordinator LaFleur and Coach Rodgers don’t have a clue about running the ball. Isn’t that obvious? The Packers have wasted Jones’s talent every year but 2019 when they relied on him. In 2022 he had 2 games with at least 20 carries and 6 games with less than 10 carries. What is pathetic is that the Packers is that they run the ball well but not enough. Everyone knows this, has known and will know it in the future. Every discussion should start with the suspect personnel usage on this team. Probably the worst use of talented players I’ve ever seen.

Rodgers has to go one way or another. Watch 3-5 years ago the zip on the ball to last season. Rodgers arm strength and waned and his refusal for early practice attendance has hurt this team tremendously!

delete

Delete repeat!

They are going to try to bring back everyone if you give credence to what they are saying. While some caution is necessary in the lead up to such decisions, it seems pretty clear that the plan is to keep as much if the band together and try to run it back. I can’t for the life of me see why they believe that will result in success, but it appears pretty clear that this is their strategy.

The #1 drain on our cap is #12.

As I pointed out yesterday, MLF'S offense isn't WR centered as much as RB centered. Jones is the straw that stirs the drink. I think you have to make sure you have a replacement straw on your team not just a complementary player like Dillon.
The good news is there several guys who have that ability in this year's draft including the best RB that will still be there in the first round and many in the third round.
So I would resign him since you don't have a replacement on hand.
JMHO

Cory, I understand your reason(s) for this article.

But until we will find out what Mark Murpy will decide regarding ACR, we can only discuss all other players, their position on team and the size of the contract they have.

Andy Herman gave in his podcast one of the possible "All-in" scenario. It has huge SC hits for the future seasons and he wisely sugests that is not good idea.

If they try to go another try for SB win, Packers will be damned for a long time. Packers will became team similar to Lions - how many years of irrelevance?

I'm so sorry that it is not possible to make any influence on the Mark Murphy role as Packers GM.

Speaking as a former union member, I don't think anyone should give up money that they've earned weather it's a reward for past work or for the future' they've truly earned it. These guys make a LOT of money for the NFL. Let the NFL pay it. The owners don't have to destroy their bodies and have finite careers.

That said, in the world of the NFL the cap is reality. I'd really like Jones to be a Packer for life, but if they don't upgrade their O-line he's going to go to waste. You can get anyone to run into a wall and get beat up. Think of the production they'd had this year with a real O-line. As soon as someone loaded the box against the Packers this year, they got scared out of running. Just what opposing Ds wanted.

If you can't force your will, you will be forced to do someone else's will (Shakespear).

I think you could mitigate his cap hit somewhat by adding a year to his deal if he's receptive. He's still well short of the 1600 carry wall(1035 carries as of now).

If only there were some way to get Jones more touches, but how? Whether the guy makes $7.50 and hour or eleventy bajillion a year there must be an ad hoc committee established to identify ways to get him the ball. It's a huge undertaking. Perhaps this committee can meet immediately after the 4th Down and 1 Advisory Group (third Wed of the month) meets.

If Jones stays.

29.
Antonio Johnson
S Texas A&M
trade icon
GB

45.
Darnell Washington
TE Georgia
GB

63.
Isaiah Land
EDGE Florida A&M
trade icon
GB

113.
Zach Harrison
EDGE Ohio State
GB

135.
Zacch Pickens
DT South Carolina
trade icon
GB

146.
Colby Wooden
DT Auburn
GB

161.
Bryce Ford-Wheaton
WR West Virginia
GB

189.
Jalen Green
S Mississippi State
trade icon
GB

195.
Jadon Haselwood
WR Arkansas
trade icon
GB

204.
Aki Ogunbiyi
OG Texas A&M
trade icon
GB

220.
Camren McDonald
TE Florida State
GB

2024 BUF 2nd

Aaron Jones take a pay cut to stay with the Packers? The guy who deserves a pay cut is Aaron Rodgers, but don't hold your breath on that one.

I know, Mr Negative again but guys here's the deal. Jones is okay. But just okay. I have to search my data bank brain to come up with a time I saw him break a big one for a TD.
Ya he gets five here, ten there but he is not a break away threat that teams try and adjust for. He is not scary good.
With that said, there are probably 10 or more backs in the draft that can do what he does. Cut your loses and save the money, get a new guy and move on. Dime a dozen on running backs these past years.
Oh ditto on Dillon. He lacks a quick start and is getting hit behind the line rather then on the other side most of the time.

"""""If a player has a career year, is it fair to expect them to take a pay cut?""""

Corey, Life is Not Fair. I know you've been told this before, most of us have, but it's easy to think sometimes that life should be fair. It isn't.

I like Jones quite a bit, but I'm not seeing a good scenario where we bring him back instead of trading him for a pick and $10 million in cap relief. IMO, it makes more sense to trade down a little and load up the roster on the offensive side of the roster. Blockers and skill position. No old people should be considered at RB.

Also, next year is Dillon's contract year, so if we keep Jones, we could be sitting here next offseason with our top two RBs leaving. I'd rather get a horse to replace Jones and pair with Dillon for a year. There are currently six RBs ranked in the Top 100 of CBS sports., and we could get one for a lot less than it costs to keep Jones.

Re- sign them then.
I believe he will re-work his contract.

You wrote that AR12 gets $31MM next year. I read that there's $40MM in dead cap I'd he DOESN'T play, and JL10 gets $20MM. So $60 MM for either QB. Is there anybody that thinks GB has a better chance to win with JL? $80 MM to keep both is impossible.

I see people willing to get rid of #33 for a rookie RB. This is silly IMHO, rookies are hit or miss.

I think #1 priority should maybe be pass rusher instead of TE. Of course if Tonyan continues to recover from ACL injury or if it's known he'll never be 100% is a huge piece of that puzzle. Same with #69. 4 players went down to ACL injury last year, statistically it's not likely that all 4 recover 100%.

Trade him? Pay cut? Restructure? Nothing will matter unless MLF uses him and the other 10 players on offense correctly. I’m not holding my breath on that happening. He can’t even recognize needing to run or quarterback sneak on 4th and inches. He can’t recognize that Barry doesn’t know his a## from a hole in the ground. Then throw in Murphy and gutey and doesn’t matter what they do with AJ.

Everyone loves Aaron Jones, but business is business.

If in fact MaLF isn't going to utilize him, we might as well trade him for all we can get and draft a WR/TE who MaLF will utilize.

There's no doubt we need as much cap space as we can muster, and the more draft picks we have the cheaper the contracts. We need youth and cheap contracts, no matter how we feel about AJ.

That being said, I expect the FO brain trust will bring him back no matter what and we'll be wondering why MaLF isn't using him, and then when we're in an important game, he'll put him in cold and we'll see another unlikely fumble.

Just seems like everything we do is opposite of what we should be doing.