I was just going to say the exact same thing. I've found it very interesting how much inside information about the Jones contract negotiations somehow found its way out into the media the minute the fan base starting howling about it.
We didn't hear Word One about Bakhtiari, or any other contract discussions, and we never do - every year, that information is shut down tighter than a drum. Not so much as a peep, yet with Jones, we may as well have all been listening in on every phone call, because suddenly we know how the whole thing went.
Edit: my wife's in bed, I'm bored, I spent about 40 minutes watching most of the 4th quarter of the Niners game (and now, I'm googling local therapists to call tomorrow and help me get through the trauma.) But Jones' last carry was a short run up the middle with about 6 1/2 minutes to go, and I didn't see anything remarkable there. But his second to last run was that 53-yarder with 9:37 left in the 4th; if this story is true, that must be where it happened. I didn't see anything noteworthy there, either, except that he started to get gassed around the 35-yard line and steadily slowed down a little bit from that point on, I didn't see any point where he suddenly seemed to feel something. Slowed it down several times, and honestly, everything I saw just looked like a guy getting a little weary in the 4th quarter of a 100 yard+ game.
The last 5-7 yards, he was spinning and leaping laterally trying to break through and pile up a few more, couple of sudden starts and stops, quick bursts, so there were a lot of points there where he could have easily tweaked something, but again - he didn't favor it. When he got off the ground, he was jumping and hopping up and down, dancing, and he seemed pretty OK there. Then Wilson came in and spelled him for a few snaps before his final carry.
At the end of the possession, there wasn't anything special on the sideline. I saw a lot of shots with Jones standing around talking to players, but I didn't see him talking to any of the staff, nobody was checking out the leg, and he sure didn't go into the tent. Everything semed normal. The only attention I saw him get from the staff was when a trainer was hydrating him and wiping the water off his face with a towel.
He was on the field for the final possession, but with Green Bay trailing with a minute and a half left, it was all passing plays. Except for two plays where he ran short outside routes as a dump-off option, he was just hanging back waiting for the blitz. He never really ran anywhere near full speed; just trotted around. But the point is, he was oin the field, not in the tent or the locker room.
He just didn't look to me like a guy who'd suffered a hamstring injury that would make him questionable the following week; that first time he popped that hammy in the regular serason, he knew right away, and he was done fpr the day. The fact that Green Bay left him in the game after that run doesn't seem consistent with aggravating the hamstring enough that he'd be doubtful for the next week.
So I dunno... could be true, could be bullshit. I didn't see anything really convincing. Jones has been a good soldier so far; hasn't talked at all about what happened. But if this is a lie, it may be enough to motivate him into calling bullshit on it.
Last edited by Frozen Tundra; 03-22-2024 at 02:40 AM.
Does any of this really matter or is this just us whiling away the time until the draft talk really heats up?
"The Devine era is actually worse than you remember if you go back and look at it."
KYPack
Fans like to think their feelings and opinions mean something to the team. but they really don't mean much to them at all. There was no uproar over the Jones situation. Minor disappointment, nothing more than that. Certainly nothing that would cause the Packers to fabricate some grand story not based in fact.
As for contract negotiation leaks, the vast majority come from the players side of the table.
And I bitched about MiLF not using him in the second half until the very end of the game when it was too late. Now we have an explanation of why we stopped doing what worked so well in the first half.
Was releasing this information a "piece of shit" move? Meh. Not if its true. The truth is simply the truth.
I don't hold Grudges. It's counterproductive.
And in todays world (I hate to sound like Tex) the media is constantly getting caught for flat out fabricating things. So who knows if ANYONE from EITHER side actually leaked this. It could have been a guy with an opinion, or it could have been "leaked" by a waterboy who wanted to feel relevant.
I don't hold Grudges. It's counterproductive.
I think AJO loves the fans of GB and his image is important to him. That is why the leak gets released about how he was JordyNelson''d.
LIFE IS ABOUT CHAMPIONSHIPS; I JUST REALIZED THIS. The MILWAUKEE BUCKS have won the same number of championships over the past 50 years as the Green Bay Packers. Ten years from now, who will have more championships, and who will be the fart in the wind ?
Perceptions from afar are funny things. I met Derek Jeter once...what an asshole. I met Terell Owens once. What a decent respectful young man. Told his friend to stop swearing in front of the ladies (casino workers). Jones strikes me as a good guy, but I have no idea if he would leak that or not. And he might just not be as classy and decent as we all perceive him to be from afar.
I don't hold Grudges. It's counterproductive.
I think things were leaked from both sides to control the narrative. I suspect it was Jones' agent, not Jones himself. GB also stated they wanted him to take a pay cut in half, but they didn't mention that a big chunk was in incentives.
Ultimately, it's just negotiating that got public. It's just seeing how the sausage is made.
I do wonder what changed from Gute saying he "absolutely" wanted Jones back to him being released... unless it was unspoken and assumed that Gute "absolutely" wanted Jones back at a specific price point.
And the timing on the Jacobs signing doesn't really impact things from what I've heard. They asked Jones to take the pay cut first, and when he said no they moved on to sign Jacobs.
If you ask a player to take a cut and they say no, you either cut them or risk every player thinking it's a bluff and calling you on it.
Having an ex-NFL player as a client, I agree with all of this.
Our client signed a nice 2nd contract. Had a down year and the club came back asking for a paycut or be cut. Funny his agent wasn't anywhere to be found when the team wanted him to take a paycut but was there every step of the way for the 2nd contract signing.
Our client bet on himself, got cut and signed a 1 year deal with another team. He played well and got a good 3rd contract that lasted until he retired.
But Rodgers leads the league in frumpy expressions and negative body language on the sideline, which makes him, like Josh Allen, a unique double threat.
-Tim Harmston
Sunday afternoons at the office are so much fun during tax time. At least I can read PackerRats for a couple minute escape here and there.
But Rodgers leads the league in frumpy expressions and negative body language on the sideline, which makes him, like Josh Allen, a unique double threat.
-Tim Harmston
Whether he's an intelligent man or not, my point was I don't think he's a stupid enough man to believe that this would somehow make people angry at the team. Why would it? If Gutekunst had good reason to believe that Jones wasn't healthy enough to pay him $11,000,000, why would that piss fans off? Only an idiot would think the fans are going to rise up like, "Oh, poor Aaron, how dare Gutekunst not want to take care of him." That'd just be stupid; of course the fans would support not spending that kind of money on an injured player.
Who says anything changed? Language like "I absolutely want Jones back this year", or "I absolutely expect Jones back this year", is totally meaningless. It's ambiguous, completely noncomittal "GM speak" for "he may be back, he may not, too early to make any promises". I think it's just implied that it would entirely depend on how negotiations went, because everyone knew that he would be asked to restructure.
Gutekunst may be a lot of things, but he's no fool. He knows how to speak the language. He knew damned well that in a couple of weeks he was going to ask Jones to take a huge pay cut, and he's not dumb enough to think Jones was just going to take it without (at best) some serious pushback. And he's smart enough to know there was a good chance Jones would refuse it altogether. Saying things like "we really want Aaron back, we love him, Aaron's the heart and soul of our team, we definitely expect him back" makes the fans happy because they think the team is committed to keeping him, and then when the negotiations go bad and he gets released, Gutekunst looks like hey, at least he really tried. Not his fault. It just didn't work out.