Frozen - You stayed out in the cold too long and froze your huevos and sense off!!! No fucking way is Jones as good as Ahman. Ahman on this team last season = SB appearance. Shit Jones even spotted Ahman a fumble in SF so you can’t say about Ahman fumbling. And he damn sure isn’t as good as Jim Brown. Jones probably wouldn’t have last one season in that time.
Loved Jones when he was doing his thing but can’t put him in the workhorse category IMO.
Oh, I'm definitely not saying Jones is as "good" as Jim Brown; that man is a legend who literally defined how the position should and would always be played for the rest of the NFL's history.Originally Posted by MadtownPacker
And I'm sure not going to argue that he was "better" than Ahman Green; declaring someone a "better" back is a broad, comprehensive term that goes beyond mere statistical numbers. I'm not afraid to die on a hill if I truly believe my argument is a good one, but neither one of those two hills even come close.
If you offer me a choice between 7 years of Aaron Jones in his prime, and 7 years of prime Ahman Green, and as much as I love Aaron, I'm taking Green 10 times out of 9. Because it's about so much more than just stats; Green was an absolute force of nature, a gamechanger every time he broke the huddle, not just when he had the ball. When Green was on the field, the entire defense changed their whole look. I'm old enough to have seen Jim Taylor and Paul Hornung play (still have their autographs), and I'd put Green right up there with those two - second only to Taylor.
I'm only saying that in terms of pure statistical productivity, which is one of the important meaures of what makes a back great but not the only one, Aaron Jones has had an amazing run in Green Bay. And we're lucky to have been here to see it, and I just hope that as he moves on to the next phase of his career, we all regard him with the proper appreciation.
I threw together a table comparing his stats to Ahman, but I can't figure out how to get it to display here. Hopefully it's not too hard to work out; Jones is the first "column" of numbers, and Green is the right-hand column.
Obviously, Green's career totals are way ahead of Jones, because he played 12 seasons and Jones only 7. But when you look at the stats in terms of game-by-game and season-by-season, Jones has a clear edge overall. Out of 13 significant statiscal categores, the two are remarkably close in many (if not most), but Ahman only has the edge in 2 of the 13 - yards per game, in which he has just a 1-yard advantage, and carries per game, where he leads 13.9-12.1. And in some of the others, Jones is significantly ahead (yds per carry, yds per season, and several of the receiving categories).
Jones Green
Rushing yds/yr 848 767
YDS per carry 5 4.5
YDS per game 61.2 62.2
ATT per game 12.1 13.9
Rushing TD/year 7 5
Receptions per year 38 31.5
Receptions per game 2.8 2.6
Rec. Yds/year 296.6 240.2
Rec. Yds/game 7.8 7.6
Rec. TD/game 2.6 0.08
Total yards per year 1147.7 1143.5
Total TD per year 9 6.6
Fumbles per carry 1/78.6 1/56.9
(source: statmuse)
And you can't get around the fact that of the hundreds of men who have played running back in the modern era, when one of them puts up a couple of very significant statistics (yards per carry) that have been matched or exceeded only by players like Jim Brown, Mercury Morris, and Joe Perry, that's an extraordinary accomplishment. Hundreds of other players (including a few Packers) have played many years in this league and not even come close to that. I understand that yeah, blocking schemes, coaches, Aaron Rodgers, etc, but is there really anything else about the Packers offense over the last 7 or 8 years that jumps off the page and stands out as so unique and so completely unparalled in NFL history that it would explain a running back who's good (or even really, really good) being one of only 3 players who equalled Jim Brown and Joe Perry in number of seasons with 5.25 yards per carry?
Especially in seasons where they went 7-9. 6-9-1, and 8-9? An argument could be made for 2020 (13-3), but were the 2017, 2018, and 2022 Packers legendary teams who could carry a back to greatness? Every one of those season were years where the Packers basically sucked, Rodgers struggled, and the only thing about the offense that actually worked was handing it to Aaron Jones. He wasn't coasting behind dynamic, powerhouse offenses who dominated the league and opened up numerous opportunities for the RB to exploit imbalances - he was it. He was the the most productive part of the offense all 3 of those years. On RPO plays, every D knew there was a strong likelihood it was going to be Aaron coming out of the backfield, because that was basically all we had to offer. It wasn't the offense carrying Aaron, and Aaron taking advantage of them. It was Aaron carrying the team.
Again, I'm not saying he was one of the greatest backs of all time. The statistics only go so far, and I would have a hard time arguing that it should go anywhere near that far. But I think at some point, when you're looking at Aaron's career, you have to accept that he has rather quietly put in a truly amazing body of work (unmatched in many key ways by any other back in his era) and we have to stand back, look at it, and acknowledge that he was the key factor in all of those seasons. You give the man the ball, and he gets yards. Year in, year out. I really don't believe he gets the respect and appreciation he's earned here in Green Bay.
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