Packers Will Keep Jones Through Contract Restructure

Aaron Jones is slated to have a $20 million salary-cap charge in 2023. The Packers will shift around money to keep their star running back.

Author:
Bill Huber
Publish date:
Jan 13, 2023 6:22 PM EST

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Green Bay Packers

GREEN BAY, Wis. – Green Bay Packers general manager Brian Gutekunst answered a serious question about running back Aaron Jones on Friday with one part honesty, one part humor.

With Jones’ cap charge for the 2023 season set to soar to $20 million, would the Packers have to restructure his contract?

“With the way we’re doing things lately, we’ll probably restructure everybody and try to keep making some room,” Gutekunst said with a laugh.

Laughter is the best medicine, whether it's dealing with the common cold or uncommon salary-cap issues. That’s how they dealt with their salary cap problems last year and that’s how they’ll do it this year.

The Packers are about $13 million over a projected 2023 salary cap of $225 million, according to OverTheCap.com. Throw in the cost of signing their draft class, that will swell to almost $17.25 million. Only seven teams are in worse shape financially.

In the case of Jones, who will be entering Year 3 of a four-year, $48 million deal, his cap number for 2023 is slated to be a bit more than $20 million. That’s by far the highest figure among running backs. That can be trimmed significantly by reducing his base salary of $8.1 million to the league minimum and taking the difference as well as a $7 million roster bonus and turning it into signing bonus.

By prorating all that over the final years of his contract and taking advantage of the void years inserted into last year’s restructure, the Packers could create about $10.5 million of cap space. Jones would see every penny of his contract and the Packers would get badly needed cap relief. It’s a win-win – until the can they’ve kicked down the road winds up in their lap at some point.

“We’re working through all those things,” Gutekunst said. “There’s all those dominoes, right? You’re looking at everything. We’ll work through that over the next month or so.”

Jones, who turned 28 last month, is coming off one of his best seasons. He rushed for 1,121 yards (career high), averaged 5.3 yards per carry (up from last year’s 4.7), caught 59 passes (a career high) and finished with 1,516 yards from scrimmage (close to his career-high 1,518).

Jones’ season ended on a sour note. During the Packers’ season-ending loss to the Detroit Lions on Sunday night, Jones’ fumble late in the first half led to, at least, a six-point swing.

A day later, Jones vowed to do better – hopefully in a Green Bay jersey.

“I control what I can control. I’d love to be here, so hopefully they feel the same way about me,” he said.

They do, as Gutekunst made abundantly cleared with Jones and another veteran whose contract is going to need to be revamped, left tackle David Bakhtiari.

“Certainly, we expect to have him back,” Gutekunst said of Jones. “Obviously, he’s a dynamic player. It’s amazing. For a guy his size, to bring it every day, he rarely misses a practice, 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.”