Packer Central

Jones Staying With Packers With Revamped Contract

Aaron Jones, one of the faces of the franchise, is coming off one of the best seasons of his career. Here is the financial breakdown.

Bill Huber

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GREEN BAY, Wis. – As expected, the Green Bay Packers and running back Aaron Jones have agreed to a restructured contract that will keep him with the team in 2023.

Due to the structure of the four-year deal he agreed to in 2021 and last year’s restructure, Jones was set to play with a salary-cap charge of just a bit more than $20 million in 2023. That was by far the highest in the NFL, which is why general manager Brian Gutekunst after the season said they’d restructure the deal.

“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.

This was more than just the usual shuffling of money, though, with Jones agreeing to cut his salary by $5 million in exchange for more guaranteed money.

According to OverTheCap.com, here’s the breakdown:

Jones was due a base salary of $8.1 million and a roster bonus of $7.0 million. Along with per-game roster bonuses and a workout bonus, he was due a total payout of exactly $16 million.

Now, Jones will receive a base salary of $1.58 million – about a half-million more than the league minimum – and the roster bonus disappeared. To help offset the difference, he was given an $8.52 million signing bonus. Base salary, signing bonus, per-game roster bonuses and a workout bonus add up to a total payout of $11.0 million.

In the 2022 restructure, two void years were added. In the 2023 restructure, another void year was added. Thus, that $8.52 million signing bonus was spread over his under-contract seasons of 2023 and 2024 and the voids in 2025, 2026 and 2027. In total, Jones’ cap number for 2023 is $8.197 million. That’s a savings of $11.816 million.

The additional signing bonus means Jones’ cap number for 2024 has moved from $16.013 million to $17.717 million. In 2025, when Jones no longer is under contract, his dead-money charge will soar from $1.526 million to $6.638 million.

That is pain for another day. For now, they've hammered through more than half of their overage. With the 2023 rookie class added into the mix, the Packers were about $20.4 million over the cap, according to OverTheCap.com.

Jones, who turned 28 on Dec. 2, is coming off one of his best seasons. Playing through some late-season injuries that limited his touches, Jones rushed for 1,121 yards (a career high), averaged 5.3 yards per carry (up from last year’s 4.7), caught 59 passes (also a career high) and finished with 1,516 yards from scrimmage (close to his career-high mark of 1,518).

He topped 5,000 career rushing yards this year and moved into third place on the franchise list.

He ranks among some of the NFL legends with his career mark of 5.11 yards per carry.

“Obviously, he’s a dynamic player,” Gutekunst said. “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.”

Jones, who has become one of the faces of the franchises as the team’s Walter Payton Man of the Year nominee, was hoping he would not be a cap casualty.

“I control what I can control. I’d love to be here, so hopefully they feel the same way about me,” Jones said a day after the season-ending loss to Detroit in which he had a game-turning fumble late in the first half.

With one Aaron decision done, another looms with quarterback Aaron Rodgers. At the Super Bowl, Jones thought Rodgers would return.

“He’s meant a lot. I owe A-Rod a lot,” Jones said a day after the Detroit game. “I don’t know how my career would’ve been if it wasn’t for him lobbying for me to play early when I was under (Mike) McCarthy. He’d come to the sideline (and say), ‘I want 33 in the game, I want 33 in the game.’ We’d call a timeout, and he’d be like ‘33.’

“Just those things when I wasn’t getting playing time and him believing in me did a lot for my confidence and did a lot for me. If a Hall of Fame quarterback believes in you and you’ve only taken a couple snaps and thinks that highly of you, I’ve got to live up to it. I’ve got to go out there and prove my guy right. I believe in myself that much as well, but it does a lot for your confidence.”

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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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