Aaron Jones Being Released

[bobblehead]

Tundra...Is it possible to grasp everything you said, Love Jones to death, but realize he is going to be one the wrong side of 30 next season?

I'll miss him. If I were GM he would have finished his last season in GB for $9 million instead of Jacobs for even more. But the reality of the NFL is that he had trouble staying on the field. We tried to stick with Bak because of his talent. That didn't work out. This could have gone either way and I would have been fine with it.

[Frozen Tundra]

Tundra... Is it possible to grasp everything you said, Love Jones to death, but realize he is going to be one the wrong side of 30 next season?

Oh, yeah, absolutely. In fact, that's exactly how I feel. Like you, I'm not sure I'd have had the stone-cold balls to move on from him this season but if Gute thinks it's the right call, I support him. He probably knows a few things about the overall situation that you and I don't see. Maybe there's more going on with his knee or overall health that is strictly internal information; maybe the trainers have reported that the hamstring and/or the knee are not recovering as well as we fans can observe. Maybe they're reporting that his recovery from those injuries is not on a pace that they would have expected, that he's reached that point in his career where suddenly the everyday aches and pains of an NFL running back are not responding and bouncing back as quickly and as easily as they did a couple of years ago.

Maybe there are even more soft tissue things that don't rise to the level of mandated reporting, but when added up paint a picture of a player who's aging out more quickly than people outside the organization would see. Because that really is a thing in sports, and something GMs have to account for.

Could be any one of those things, but it could simply be that internally, they see a player who's wearing down more quickly than we reaize.

Or, it could be that this is an example of cutting a player a year too early rather than risk doing it a year too late. Which is a judgment call that I would completely support, because it tells me our GM is not afraid to make ruthless and unpopular decisions if he feels that's in the best interest of the team.

I just keep in mind that in Gute's worldview, this is our window. I think he had a master strategic plan that centered on our Super Bowl window opening in 2025, with 24 being the year that our young team would make a playoff run and get soime postseason experience to prepare them for a serious Lombardi run in 25. But that the second half of 23 essentially became our 2024, and jumped our timetable a full year.

And (if that is true) these 2 FA signings suggest that he gets that, that he's committed to going all in; that he's erring on the side of extreme caution, and unwilling to risk that opportunity by betting our entire stack of chips on the hope that a 30-year old running back who suddenly suffered at east 2 injuries last season is going to stay healthy for 6 solid months in 2024.

Which is why this is a bold move that I completely support, no matter how sad it makes me. For the players and the fans, it's a game, but for the front office it's a cut-throat, coldblooded business. I'm glad we seem to finally have a GM who gets that, and is capable of doing whatever it takes to move the entire team forward. Even when his decisions are very painful to see. I'm glad he's there to make those calls, because it sure as hell wouldn't be something I could do.