Packers reach last minute agreement to keep Aaron Jones on the roster

Running back Aaron Jones plans to stay in Green Bay in 2023 after agreeing to a new, more team-friendly contract this offseason. 

While Aaron Rodgers is presumably sitting in total darkness contemplating his future in the league, Green Bay Packers running back Aaron Jones secured an extension that will keep him in town for 2023.

According to ESPN’s Adam Schefter, Jones’ deal will pay him $11 million in 2023, and Jones also gets an $8.52 million signing bonus. The No. 1 running back in Green Bay ran for a career-high 1,121 yards and added 395 receiving yards in 2022 and will enter his seventh year as a Packer this upcoming season.

The Packers and Jones were rumored to part ways if they couldn’t get a deal done, as Jones’ previous contract was going to be the highest cap hit among all running backs at roughly $20 million in 2023. The specific details of how much Green Bay will save in terms of salary cap space haven’t yet been revealed, yet Jones’ extension bodes well for the franchise’s playoff-contending hopes in the imminent future.

Now that the Packers have successfully reworked Jones’ contract, everybody is thinking the same thing: Is the other Aaron next?

Aaron Jones and Green Bay Packers agree to a team-friendly deal in 2023

One could hardly say Aaron Rodgers and the Packers are in the middle of tense contract negotiations — there’s really been no reported negotiations at all so far this offseason with the long-time quarterback currently in the middle of a “darkness retreat” trying to figure out his future.

When Rodgers returns from the four-day retreat, it’s assumed that he will have a clearer view of what he wants to do whether that means retiring, staying with the Packers, or asking for a trade.

In Aaron Jones’ case, the running back had to take a steep pay cut (a $5 million shave off his salary) to remain with the team.

Rodgers’ three-year, $150 million contract signed last March also isn’t viable for 2023 and if the quarterback stays in Green Bay, he and the Packers may lock horns when it comes to reworking a new deal. That is, if Rodgers wants to stay in the first place.

Jones didn’t exactly hold the upper hand in his contract negotiations given the crowded running back market and his not-so-premium position; Rodgers, however, holds a better hand and there’s a sense that whatever he chooses to do, the Packers will try to work with him through it.

Green Bay ticked off one box on the offseason checklist by extending Jones, keeping their running back nucleus of Jones and A.J. Dillon together. Unfortunately, and somewhat predictably, the Packers’ quarterback situation for 2023 isn’t so cut and dried.