NFL.com Suggests Packers Could Release Aaron Jones, Kenny Clark (LOL)

Peak NFL silly season has arrived at the mere suggestion either of these two star players might be released by the Green Bay Packers.

GREEN BAY, Wis. – NFL silly season – that lull between the Super Bowl and the start of free agency – is officially under way.

At NFL.com, Matt Okada produced a list of 16 NFC players who are “cut candidates” this offseason as teams wrestle with the salary cap. Three of them play for the Green Bay Packers.

Topping the list is left tackle David Bakhtiari. That’s logical enough. His $40 million cap charge is by far the highest among NFL offensive linemen and would rank eighth among quarterbacks. His career has been ruined by a knee injury – he played in just one game last year before having the fourth and fifth surgical procedures done in hopes of resurrecting his Hall of Fame-level career.

Those surgeries might be a success, but the Packers will have no way of knowing before they must make some difficult financial decisions to get under the salary cap. Thus, the team probably will release Bakhtiari and perhaps draft a player to challenge returning starter Rasheed Walker.

The other two possibilities are preposterous.

Running back Aaron Jones’ cap charge for 2024 is $17 million. That’s second-highest at the position behind another cut candidate, the Saints’ Alvin Kamara.

“His declined production (and health) for most of 2023 makes that number even harder to justify,” Okada wrote.

Jones, however, isn’t going anywhere. Don’t take my word for it.

“Yeah, absolutely, we’d love to Aaron back,” general manager Brian Gutekunst said at the end of the season. “We’re still putting all those things together as far as how we’re going to move forward. But he was such a difference-maker when he was out there this year. The way our offense was able to move, the way he changed a lot of the way we operated when he was in there and when he was healthy.

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“I think for us, it’s finding a way to keep him out there and keep him healthy. Not only on the field but, and you guys know this, he’s such an influential leader in our locker room. He’s just really the heartbeat of our team. That’s certainly the anticipation, that he’ll be back.”

The 29-year-old Jones won’t play under that hefty cap charge. A year ago, he took a $5 million pay cut in exchange for more guaranteed money to stick with the Packers. After putting together a streak of 100-yard rushing games not eclipsed since 2014, expect the Packers and Jones to rework that deal again.

Defensive tackle Kenny Clark also made the list. Citing Clark’s “obscene” $27.5 million cap charge, which is the third-highest among defensive tackles, Okada thought the Packers could whack Clark to create room for Jordan Love’s forthcoming extension.

The 28-year-old Clark is coming off a third Pro Bowl season after setting career highs with 7.5 sacks and 16 quarterback hits. He is the fulcrum of Green Bay’s new-look defensive line as the only player on the unit who can wreck a running play and passing play with regularity.

Clark is due an astronomical $15.55 million base salary in 2024, his final year under contract. Given his importance to the team and his relative youth, he is infinitely more likely to get a contract extension, which would take the sting out of the cap charge, than be released.

Meanwhile, Sports Illustrated’s Gilberto Manzano wrote a story forecasting one transaction each team in the NFL should make this offseason. For the Packers, it was trading Jaire Alexander.

“His antics … have grown tiring in Green Bay, especially with him no longer being a premier cornerback. All signs point to the Packers shopping Alexander,” Manzano wrote.

All signs except one.

Earlier this offseason, Gutekunst was asked if he’d trade the former All-Pro cornerback.

“No. No,” he replied.

Alexander is coming off a dismal season in which he missed nine games due to injuries and one game for a suspension after appointing himself a captain at Carolina and almost botching the coin toss.

However, both sides believe that suspension has improved the relationship between player and franchise.

“Those things are difficult and those are tough,” Gutekunst said. “But, at the end of the day, it allowed us all to reset. I’m really proud of the way Jaire responded to that. I really think that’s going to help us moving forward.”

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