Yep, he doesn't have much left. He will probably have a few games where he's healthy and will shine, but injuries will knock him out for chunks of the season, and age conquers all, especially in NFL RB's.Originally Posted by MadtownPacker
Yep, he doesn't have much left. He will probably have a few games where he's healthy and will shine, but injuries will knock him out for chunks of the season, and age conquers all, especially in NFL RB's.
Fire Murphy, Gute, MLF, Barry, Senavich, etc!
Rumors were the Packers wanted Jones to reduce his number by 50% which would have been between 5-7 million in a hometown discount. Crazy that he is reportedly going to sign with Minnesota for the same price. I guess ego and feelings will always play in this game.
I really like Jones and think he is a top 5 or 6 back in the league, unfortunately he missed too much time. Jacobs is fine, obviously he lead the league in rushing two seasons ago and he is only 26. From a a business decision this all made sense.
Oh well. I wish they'd kept Jones, but all things considered, we're better off with Jacobs. I was expecting Jones to soak some team for a really big amount for a fairly long term, but no, just $7 million for one year. If the Packers didn't want to pay him that much, maybe they know something about him, injury-wise.
This Jacobs contract is like something I haven't heard before, 1 year, then 3 more of team options - that's pretty team friendly. If he flounders, the Packers don't owe him anything past the first year. But if he's good, we've got him for four years at today's money. And at age 26, he should be good for that long.
Now let's draft a good 2nd or 3rd rounder to rotate with him - ideally IMO Braelon Allen.
What could be more GOOD and NORMAL and AMERICAN than Packer Football?
I am liking that he went purple. He will be motivated against the Packers but Jacobs will be motivated to show he is better than his predecessor.
Long term I agree. I think Jacobs is tough and can be on the field all three downs. He's 220 pounds and will be a problem to tackle in December at Lambeau.
Aaron Jones is going to be beloved by his Vikings teammates quickly. He's genuinely a good dude and I wish him the best of luck (minus 2 games). If they run him like they tried to run Cook or Mattison on that field he's going to have a knee injury by Game 6 though.
For MIN, I don't know what they are doing. Are they rebuilding? I assume they are going to chase a QB in Round 1 (McCarthy? Nix? Penix?) in the second tier below Caleb/Maye/Daniels. Do the GM or HC have some kind of grace period? That team is not going to be expected to threaten for the NFCN crown; maybe they think they can squeak to a 7 seed but I think that's very optimistic. Aside from Cousins, there wasn't much on the market for QBs, especially after Baker and Russell signed. Are they tanking? I can't figure it out yet, after the draft it will make more sense what they are doing.
Also - if they trade for Justin Fields they are insane.
A HC usually gets one chance to hitch his wagon to a QB, a GM might get two chances. I'll be very curious to see what MIN (and CHI) do.
Back to Aaron Jones -- I would've thought he'd go to HOU or DAL instead. Maybe even JAX. He definitely wanted to stay close and stick it to Gute. I don't blame him, in a way. He already did one big pay cut, why take another when he did everything he could to prove his value?
Not gonna hate on him, he's a Packer HOF'er. All the same, I suspect he will regret his decision. He'd have been an awesome RB2 to pair with Jacobs.
I will miss Aaron Jones, a truly exciting player to watch. I suspect the team will miss him too. Players talk about the personality of a team changing from year to year, some years more than others. Last year was a big change with Rodgers leaving and Love taking over. Next year may be as well. I think Jones especially, but Dillon too were strong, positive influences on the team character. It will be different.
I was hoping he would stay, and the draft would supply his eventual replacement. I hoped he would retire a Packer.
Jacobs can be a true workhorse type of back, something Jones never was because the team has always preached the need to manage his workload. If he had a busy series of downs, the next series he was on the bench. Understandable, with as small as Jones is. But, he was a great, great asset to have; and for the most part I think the Packers used him well to get the most out of him for a long time. A back like Jacobs might make it easier to develop a rhythm in the offense, because he will play series after series.
It will seem wrong to watch him on any team other than GB, especially so in a purple jersey. But, realistically, it is doubtful he will be playing in 2026 no matter where he is or could have been.
Andy Herman
@AndyHermanNFL
Who will have the better next 2 seasons in the NFL?
Aaron Jones 9.7%
Josh Jacobs 90.3%
2,611 votes
·
23 hours left
Ring the bells that still can ring
Forget your perfect offering
There is a crack, a crack in everything
That's how the light gets in - Leonard Cohen
Jones missed a lot of time this year, which could be a foreshadowing of the future for an aging back, but in the previous four years he missed only four games in total. That's very good for the position.
With the way he performed at the end of the season, it is hard to see him go.
Last edited by Patler; 03-12-2024 at 02:50 PM.
Jacobs did not perform particularly well in 2023. Is he one of those RBs who plays very well, but for a very short time? Remains to be seen. He didn't have a lot of carries in college, unlike some who flame out early in the NFL.
Ever since John Brockington, I don't count on backs for more than a few years.
There was a lot going on last year. He was coming off a 2022 season where he had almost 400 touches. That might have taken something out of him. The Raiders put the franchise tag on him and he didn't report until late August when they agreed to a contract. The Raiders offense was horrible last year, especially once Garoppolo went out with an injury.
I believe the Packers will be better about not overusing him. Don't think you'll see him with any more 400 touch seasons.
Ring the bells that still can ring
Forget your perfect offering
There is a crack, a crack in everything
That's how the light gets in - Leonard Cohen
What I saw on film was that , similar to Jones, Jacobs looked faster than his 40 time. I also saw some shiftiness although maybe not quite as much as Jones. Jacobs has some power, but Jones had more than a lot of RBs too. In short, they are fairly similar. I'm wondering if Jacobs' downturn last year might have been a bit of dogging it because he got franchised. If so, it could show an attitude problem, but it's more good thing than bad, because it could mean he's still about as good as he was in his two big years.
I also think the Packers should not overuse him - as I've been saying, draft somebody good on the second day to rotate with him.
What could be more GOOD and NORMAL and AMERICAN than Packer Football?
All true, but..... It just seems that often when backs go through a year like that, after a number of highly productive years, they just lose something, and never again approach what they once were.
GB is going from a 5yds/carry rb to a 4yds/carry rb. Jones never averaged less then 4.6/carry over a season. Jacobs has twice been under 4.0/carry (3.9 in 2020, 3.5 last year).
What I hope is that Jacobs becomes the workhorse, consistent running back that Dillon always teased at being but never really was, and that GB finds a quick, fast and elusive runner and receiver to replace what Jones was, even if for fewer touches per game than Jones was.
GB is only half done rebuilding their backfield.
Agreed. They still need Jones’s replacement, and that’s not going to be easy to find.
Man, I was hoping he’d be back for one more year, and the Packers would draft his understudy this April.
"The Devine era is actually worse than you remember if you go back and look at it."
KYPack
I'll be reasonably satisfied if Jacobs is a solid workhorse like David Montgomery. I think he has a chance to be a bit more than that. I agree they need a quicker back as an alternative. Will Shipley of Clemson comes to mind.
Ring the bells that still can ring
Forget your perfect offering
There is a crack, a crack in everything
That's how the light gets in - Leonard Cohen
They’re still going to be drafting a running back or two in April.
"The Devine era is actually worse than you remember if you go back and look at it."
KYPack
Ok but how many rush attempts? Because if it is a big difference I will take Jacobs getting 4 consistently. Jones broke big plays often so I have to question how the average came to be. It damn sure wasn’t from him grinding it out every week.
Jacobs may not be flashy, but he's plenty good enough to punish defenses if they don't respect the run. I don't know we need a speedy back, but we need more depth.
HOFer
even better that our best player last year cost to much money to keep, his replacement costs more, and somehow we give nixon 6 million a year
A lot of people are saying that they don't see much difference between Jones and Jacobs, but this is a significant one right there. I think a lot of fans still don't quite seem to get how special Jones was and sorta still is.
Aaron Jones has an extraordinary YPC average - eye-poppingly impressive. His YPC is 5.0. In the entire history of the NFL, of all running backs with 850+ carries, only 3 averaged more than Jones, and 2 of those 3 are named either Jim Brown or Mercury Morris.
He's one of only 3 players who have gained 5.25 YPC in 4 separate seasons, and the other 2 are 50's legends Brown and Joe Perry. For the sake of reference, Ahman Green and Jim Taylor each managed that only once for Green Bay. Marshall Faulk and Barry Sanders each did it 3 times, OJ Simpson did it twice, and Ladainian Tomlinson did it once.
That's the company that Aaron Jones is in. For several years now, I've just been baffled by how many Packer fans (and the league as a whole) do not seem to grasp what a very, very rare player Aaron Jones is. It's going to be a damned long time before we ever see another running back in Green Bay like we've enjoyed the last few years.
I suspect Jacobs' YPC is going to trend sharply upwards very soon, but as it stands right now, it's hard to deny that we gave up one of the most purely productive running backs in the history of not only the Green Bay Packers but the entire NFL and replaced him with someone who statistically seems very unlikely to ever hit the mark left by Jones. But, odds are, Jones is unlikely to clear that bar himself going forward over the next couple of years.
Jacobs may never be the RB Jones was, and in fact, almost certainly will not be. Statistically, it's very unlikely, because Jones truly was a historically great running back - I mean, truly great. Our chances of scooping up another consecutive player who is one of the most productive RBs of all time is like expecting to have 2 all-time great quarterbacks in a row, let alone 3 - and who in their right mind could ever believe something like that can, happen, right?
Totally agree. I just hope the second piece of the puzzle is a rookie, rather than another FA, but I'd be shocked if he signed another UFA for the position when we have so many Day Two picks in a year with so many Day Two RBs.
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.
I don't hold Grudges. It's counterproductive.
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