Packer Central

33 Days Until Packers Training Camp: No. 33, Aaron Jones

One of the most productive running backs in NFL history, Aaron Jones' legacy with the Green Bay Packers has been written in tattoo ink.

Bill Huber

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GREEN BAY, Wis. – Aaron Jones’ legacy with the Green Bay Packers is set in stone. And tattoo ink.

Jones is one of the great players in franchise history, having moved up to No. 3 on the all-time rushing list last season with 5,284 yards. His 5.1-yard average is No. 1 among running backs and more than a half-yard better than Hall of Famer Jim Taylor.

During the offseason, he took a pay cut to help the Packers with their salary cap.

“A huge debt of gratitude for him doing some of the things to stay here with us,” general manager Brian Gutekunst said. “He’s obviously one of our most dynamic players, playmakers. We knew when we signed him a few years ago that, after the second year, there would be a time here where we’d have to make a decision.”

And now, he got the “G” tattooed on his knee.

The term “Face of the Franchise” isn’t really a thing. If it were, it might as well be Jones. He is a great player, a team player and a pillar of the community.

“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,” coach Matt LaFleur said during minicamp. “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.”

With just one Pro Bowl season in six years in the league, the 28-year-old is one of the NFL’s more underrated players. The efficiency numbers are absolutely staggering.

In NFL history, 467 running backs have at least 525 carries. Jones ranks sixth all-time with 5.11 yards per carry. The list:

Jamaal Charles: 5.38.

Nick Chubb: 5.24.

Jim Brown: 5.22.

Dan Towler: 5.20.

Mercury Morris: 5.15.

Aaron Jones: 5.11.

Jonathan Taylor: 5.08.

Miles Sanders: 5.02.

Gale Sayers: 5.00.

Barry Sanders: 4.99.

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Aaron Jones (Mark Hoffman/USA Today Sports Images)

Of the 100 running backs with at least 1,000 career carries, Jones’ 5.11-yard average trails only Charles, Chubb and Brown.

Cutting it down further, of the 50 running backs with 1,000 career carries who were drafted in the fourth round or later or weren’t drafted at all, Jones – a fifth-round pick in 2017 – ranks No. 1 all-time by a wide margin with his 5.11-yard average. Hall of Famer Joe Perry, who started his career in the old AAFC, averaged 4.82 yards per carry while in the NFL with the San Francisco 49ers and Baltimore Colts.

“It’s been an amazing journey,” Jones said during minicamp. “Nothing that I would trade for the world. A lot of sacrifices – not only sacrifices from me but from my family, the people around me, the team around me that helped me, my teammates, as well, coaches.

“On this journey, it hasn’t just been me. I feel like I’ve gotten to bring a lot of people along on this journey with me, which is something that’s special to me because a lot of people don’t make it from where I’m from. I look to try to do something special here, which is win a championship. Going to continue to work every day until we get there.”

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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.

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