There Are No Perfect Endings In Green Bay

Coming to grips with the sudden departure of former Green Bay Packers running back Aaron Jones.

It’s a strange sight seeing the Green Bay Packers at the center of the first day of the NFL’s free agency frenzy. Yet, for all of the big moves the Packers have made, no move has made waves like moving on from a beloved Packers legend such as Aaron Jones.

From a fifth-round pick in the 2017 NFL Draft, to leading the league in rushing TDs in 2019, to becoming a Pro Bowler in 2020, Jones’ emergence as a no. 1 running back was instrumental in extending the last MVP-level years for the Packers under Aaron Rodgers.

The combination of Jones’ versatility out of the backfield and out wide as well as his speed and explosiveness gave the Packers an elite-level running back, the kind of which they hadn’t had since the days of Ahman Green. While those Packers teams fell short of even reaching the Super Bowl, Jones played his part in consistently helping them get to a position to contend and stand atop of the NFC in ‘20 and ‘21.

He kept trending upwards as the Packers forged ahead into the unknown with Rodgers leaving for New York, and Green Bay’s long succession plan finally going into motion with Jordan Love becoming their starting Quarterback around this time last year. Jones now stands third in Packers history with 5,0940 rushing yards, and eighth in career yards from scrimmage, along with 45 rushing TDs.

Jones paired his work on the field with his work off of it, always displaying his warm-hearted nature and always put the team over himself. It would be hard not to call Jones the consummate Packer in recent memory for what he stood for off the field and just his overall genuineness.

That’s why Jones’ presence for a Packers team that was clearly rebuilding last season was all the more crucial in bridging one era into another, and if not for a hamstring injury that limited Jones throughout much of the regular season, we might not be in this current moment.

Yet, Jones finished the year on a heater the kind of which that we have never seen before from a Packers running back. Five straight 100-yard rushing games between the Packers’ final three regular season wins that catapulted them to an unlikely playoff berth, their Wild Card upset over the Dallas Cowboys, and their heartbreaking loss to the San Francisco 49ers in the Divisional Round.

Jones had made up for lost time, and finally healthy, it was refreshing to see him lead a rushing attack that had suffered all season long. Unlike other cap casualties like David Bakhtiari and De’Vondre Campbell, who will both be cut to help open up the Packers’ free agent spending spree, Jones’ late-season play showed that his performance outweighed any health or durability concerns.

But at the end of the day, the NFL is a business. Since the reign of Hall of Famer Ron Wolf, no maxim has gone on to define the Packers more than, ‘It’s better to move on one year too early than one year too late.’ If anything, general manager Brian Gutekunst has reinforced that as the standard operating procedure in this new era of Packers football.

Making a cold, and hard decision like moving on from an established leader like Jones certainly not an easy one, as Gutey alluded to in his official statement on the move. Asking Jones to reportedly take a 50 percent pay cut as The Athletic’s Matt Schneidman and Dianna Russini reported Monday was clearly a bridge too far.

From our vantage point, there is too much emotion wrapped up in seeing high-performing player leave without much of a goodbye. That emotion is essential to what makes a fan.

Now, the Packers are reshuffling the deck, and bringing in the 2022 NFL rushing leader in Josh Jacobs turns back the clock for the up-and-coming Packers. While there is much more to be addressed this offseason, the decision to essentially go from Jones to Jacobs might be the biggest personnel change that affects the Packers going into next season.

It will be hard to project whether this gamble will work in the Packers favor, but as they prove time and again, no one player will be more important than the ‘G’. And for the second straight offseason, the Packers will be moving from an Aaron that went on to make an everlasting mark in Green Bay.