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The Green Bay Packers are not planning to part ways with star running back Aaron Jones despite his cap hit increasing dramatically for the 2023 season.
Packers general manager Brian Gutekunst told reporters on January 13 that he expects Jones will remain in Green Bay for the 2023 season despite the fact that the 28-year-old is set to carry the biggest cap hit among all running backs in the league for next season.
“Certainly, we expect to have him back,” Gutekunst said of Jones during his end-of-season press conference. “Obviously, he’s a dynamic player. It’s amazing. For a guy his size, to bring it every day, he rarely misses a practice or rarely misses a rep. The way he leads that football team, his consistency is amazing. In this league, you can’t have just one. Obviously, having AJ (Dillon), it’s nice to have that one-two punch, but Aaron just kind of … when we got first here, you’re thinking, ‘Hey, this probably won’t last long because the way he’s built and his size,’ and he just keeps on defying the odds.”
Packers Must Address Aaron Jones’ Contract for 2023
Jones set new career-high marks in both rushing yards (1,121) and receptions (59) during the 2022 season, finishing one catch shy of Allen Lazard for most on the team. While he did score his fewest number of touchdowns since his 2017 rookie season, he remains one of the most electric weapons in the Packers’ offensive arsenal heading into 2023 — especially if Aaron Rodgers does not return to the team next season.
At the same time, Jones is also entering the third year of his contract and will see his cap hit spike from about $5.9 million in 2022 to $20.013 million in 2023, putting the Packers in a situation where they will need to address his rising cost in some capacity, likely in the form of a contract restructure that kicks money into future seasons.
“Well, with the way we’re doing things lately, we’ll probably restructure everybody and try to keep making some room,” Gutekunst joked. “But yeah, we’re working through all those things. There’s all those dominos, right? You’re looking at everything and the timing of those things. There are certain things you might do, and then you don’t have to do that, so we’ll work through that over the next month or so.”
Restructuring Jones’ Deal Could Grant Packers Cap Relief
The four-year, $48 million contract extension that Jones signed with the Packers during the 2021 offseason was essentially structured to be a two-years-then-we’ll-see deal. It allowed the Packers to retain Jones — coming off a Pro Bowl season — for a super-low cost for the first two seasons of his deal, but it also came with the promise that they would reach a financial crossroads with him before the start of Year 3.
Fortunately, if Gutekunst is genuine about his interest in retaining Jones, there are ways for them to reduce his cap number without trading or cutting him from their roster.
As Bill Huber of Sports Illustrated recently noted, the Packers could save a large chunk of cap space — about $10.5 million — if they opted to reduce his $8.5 million base salary to the league minimum and then converted the difference as well as his $7 million roster bonus into a signing bonus that could be prorated over the remainder of his contract (which includes two void years in both 2025 and 2026).
The Packers could also take their commitment to Jones a step further and sign him to a new contract extension that keeps him with the team beyond the 2024 season. If they added even just one more non-void year onto his contract, they could reduce his cap number for the upcoming season and continue their primary business practice of kicking the can down the road so that it is a problem for future seasons instead.
If the Packers somehow change their minds about Jones in the months ahead, though, there are ways for them to clear cap space if they move on from him. They would save a little more than $10.6 million in cap space if they cut or traded him before June 1, while the number of savings would jump to $16 million if they cut or traded him after June 1.
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