Dolphins Favored to Sign Aaron Jones

The Green Bay Packers have the third-shortest odds at PointsBet.

Bill Huber | Mar 12, 2021

GREEN BAY, Wis. – In 2010, basketball star LeBron James famously said he was “taking my talents to South Beach” to play for the Miami Heat.

There will be no “Decision” broadcast for understated Green Bay Packers running back Aaron Jones, but the Pro Bowler is expected to take his talents to South Beach to play for the Miami Dolphins when free agency opens for business next week.

At least that’s the viewpoint from PointsBet Sportsbook. The Dolphins are the betting favorites at +300. The Packers, who would like to retain Jones but couldn’t get it done despite having all season to strike a deal, are third on the list at +500.

A compensatory draft pick in the fifth round in 2017, Jones has been nothing short of fantastic. He is No. 2 in the draft class with 3,364 rushing yards, behind only Minnesota’s Dalvin Cook but ahead of Cincinnati’s Joe Mixon, New Orleans’ Alvin Kamara and Carolina’s Christian McCaffrey, all of whom received extensions last year.

Jones ranks 11th in franchise history in rushing yards and is tied for fourth with 37 rushing touchdowns. Among all running backs in Packers history with at least 100 career carries, his 5.17-yard average tops the team chart.

Among all backs in NFL history with at least 650 carries, Jones ranks sixth in yards per carry. He’s averaged at least 5.47 yards per attempt in three of his four seasons. He had another great year in 2020. While he didn’t find the end zone nearly as often (11 total touchdowns vs. his league-leading 19 in 2019), he rushed for a career-high 1,104 yards and averaged 5.49 yards per carry.

Miami was No. 22 in the NFL in rushing last season. Myles Gaskin led the way with 584 rushing yards. The Dolphins have $33.5 million of cap space, according to OverTheCap.com. The Packers are about $9.7 million over the cap.

Free agents can officially sign contracts at 3 p.m. Wednesday. That’s also when teams must be in compliance with the salary cap.

Here is the full list of odds from PointsBet.

Miami Dolphins: +300

San Francisco 49ers: +400

Green Bay Packers: +500

Arizona Cardinals: +500

New York Jets: +500

Pittsburgh Steelers: +500

Seattle Seahawks: +800

Chicago Bears: +1100

Atlanta Falcons: +1800

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Published Mar 12, 2021

BILL HUBER

Bill Huber, who has covered the Green Bay Packers since 2008, is the publisher of Packers On SI, a Sports Illustrated channel. E-mail: packwriter2002@yahoo.com History: Huber took over Packer Central in August 2019. Twitter: https://twitter.com/BillHuberNFL Background: Huber graduated from the University of Wisconsin-Whitewater, where he played on the football team, in 1995. He worked in newspapers in Reedsburg, Wisconsin Dells and Shawano before working at The Green Bay News-Chronicle and Green Bay Press-Gazette from 1998 through 2008. With The News-Chronicle, he won several awards for his commentaries and page design. In 2008, he took over as editor of Packer Report Magazine, which was founded by Hall of Fame linebacker Ray Nitschke, and PackerReport.com. In 2019, he took over the new Sports Illustrated site Packer Central, which he has grown into one of the largest sites in the Sports Illustrated Media Group.