Packer Central

15 Days Until Training Camp: Aaron Jones, Touchdown Machine

Few running backs have found the end zone as often as Green Bay Packers star Aaron Jones.

Bill Huber

Aaron Jones (Photo by Eric Hartline/USA Today Sports Images)
In this story:

GREEN BAY, Wis. – How will the Green Bay Packers win games without Aaron Rodgers’ touchdown passes? With Aaron Jones’ touchdown runs and receptions.

Since entering the NFL as a fifth-round pick in 2017, Jones in his six seasons ranks eighth overall and sixth among running backs with 60 touchdowns.

Jones is a great runner, to be sure, as evidenced by his all-time-great rushing average. However, with the Packers set to hit the field for their first practice of training camp in 15 days, he’s one of only six running backs with more than 15 touchdown catches over the last six years.

Jones’ career has really taken flight under coach Matt LaFleur. From 2019 through 2022, only one player in the NFL has at least 30 touchdown runs and 15 touchdown receptions. That would be Jones, who has 31 touchdown runs and 16 touchdown catches during those four seasons.

According to the Packers’ season-ending Dope Sheet, Jones is the seventh player in NFL history with 40-plus rushing touchdowns (43) and 15-plus receiving touchdowns (17) in his first six NFL seasons.

Jones scoring touchdowns is a good thing. Thanks, Capt. Obvious, right? But, during the LaFleur era, did you know the Packers are 25-5 when he scores one touchdown? Green Bay's only loss in a game of two-plus touchdowns came at Washington last year.

Jones is revered by LaFleur for more than his production.

“He is such a great model for what you want your team to be about,” LaFleur said before the final practice of minicamp on June 14. “He is all of that. He backs up anything he says with what he does. His actions are very, very powerful.

“Like I said, great role model for all these younger players of what it truly means to be a pro and just his approach and how he embraces all our players and tries to help them along the way. Can’t say enough great things about him, just the man he is, the player he is, the son he is, the father he is. He’s definitely, I’ll throw it out there, he’s one of my favorites.”

Given the transition from Rodgers to Jordan Love, LaFleur might want to lean more on Jones than in previous seasons. Incredibly, he’s topped a 5.0-yard average in four of his six years. According to Stathead, that’s one off the most in NFL history, a five-player list made up of Hall of Famers Jim Brown, Barry Sanders and Joe Perry, former Chiefs star Jamaal Charles and current Browns star Nick Chubb.

Green Bay Packers Training Camp Previews

Five reasons to believe in 2023

Five reasons not to believe in 2023

Position preview: Aaron Jones and the running backs

Position preview: Jordan Love and the quarterbacks

Projected depth charts

Countdown to Green Bay Packers Training Camp

16 days until training camp: Two months until Week 1 at Bears

17 days until training camp: 17 is the unmagical number

18 days until training camp: LaFleur’s magic touches?

19 days until training camp: 19 1,000-yard challenges

20 days until training camp: 20 reasons for optimism

More Green Bay Packers News

Rashan Gary snubbed from Top 10 list

PFF’s three-year analysis of salary caps paints ugly picture

Packers snubbed from list of potential Hall of Famers

Where do Etling, Clifford rank among NFL backup QBs

The Packers’ NFL MVP candidate

Seven-round mock draft involving every NFL player

Jordan Love’s passing over/under odds dip

Published
Bill Huber
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.

Home/News