Brian Gutekunst, general manager of the Green Bay Packers, answered a question on Thursday about whether Aaron Jones, the team’s best running back, will lead the backfield next season without holding back.
He expects the 29-year-old to be there, regardless of the rumors surrounding his future, no matter what heights the Packers reach or the equally realistic lows they’ll hit. Last off-season, the Packers essentially cut down on the most seasoned members of their roster, including starters Adrian Amos, Marcedes Lewis, Allen Lazard, and Aaron Rodgers, who was traded to the New York Jets after serving as the team’s signal caller for 15 years.There were reportedly no intentions to move on from Jones, and maybe for good reason—not even in the midst of a youth uprising. Even though Jones is the third-oldest player on the team (after Preston Smith, 31), and De’Vondre Campbell, 30, Jones may still be playing his finest football yet, particularly if the form he showed in the last stretch of the 2023 season continues into the following one.
Aaron Jones was a huge impact player this season, so Gutekunst responded, “Yeah, absolutely, we’d love to have him back, but we’re still kind of putting those things together as far as how we’re going to move forward.” When he was in there and in good health, the offense was able to flow, and he significantly altered the way we conducted ourselves.”
It’s possible that the Packers will need to modify Jones’ deal in order to adhere to their pay cap, but that is hardly unprecedented. They have already altered the terms of his contract several times; the most recent being during the off-season, when they reduced his pay by around $5 million.
At 5’9″ and 208 pounds, Jones is undersized, so the Packers have always placed a high priority on keeping him upright—even under Matt LaFleur’s predecessor, Mike McCarthy. In favor of Jamaal Williams, who the Packers selected 48 positions ahead of Jones in the 2017 draft, his usage was slightly restricted.
Sometimes, even a few years later, it has still been the case. It’s hard to say whether the Packers gave AJ Dillon, a 2020 second-round pick from Boston College, the majority of Jones’ touches because of his draft status or because they thought his 247-pound frame would help the offense, but most of the time the offense didn’t move as quickly as it did when Jones was there. But it was vital to keep Jones fresh.
Jones sustained a hamstring injury in the season opener against the Chicago Bears on September 10 and missed several games as a result. He pulled up and grabbed his back thigh as he crossed into the end zone during a 35-yard catch-and-run. In his lone appearance on September 28 against the Detroit Lions, he had just six touches and missed three games between that game and the Denver Broncos loss on October 22.
His reappearance was fleeting. After making five appearances back in the starting lineup, Jones suffered his sixth medial collateral ligament sprain in his right knee.
If there was any doubt about Jones coming back, it might have been allayed by his tear at the conclusion of the season, which went against Gutekunst’s plan to build a young roster overall. Jones recorded five consecutive 100-yard games, the longest stretch in franchise history, between a victory over the Carolina Panthers on Christmas Eve and the 49ers’ defeat in the Divisional Round. This includes 118 yards—including 131 from scrimmage—against the Dallas Cowboys in the Wild Card game. They scored three touchdowns to cap off an absolute slaughter of the NFC’s top-seeded team.Over the course of his career, Jones has faced the Cowboys four times and amassed 603 scrimmage yards and nine touchdowns. In all four games, he has gained over 100 yards in the air and averaged over 5.5 yards per carry.
With those last three touchdowns, Jones surpassed Edgar Bennett to have the most post-season running TDs in team history.Jones, who is approaching his seventh season, will turn thirty in December, right before the Packers are likely to make another deep run into the playoffs. The well-documented wall is coming, just as the greats before him have already experienced; there will come a moment when Jones will no longer move as swiftly or hit specific holes with the same explosiveness as he has in previous years. Jones is the driving force behind the Packers’ offense, which is why they had better hope that it stays that way if that time comes soon. After all, he has only served to demonstrate the opposite. The Packers were playing like the best team in the league for the final two months of the season.
