Packers Offered Aaron Jones Top-Five RB Salary?
Aaron Jones did not end his fourth Packers season on a high note, fumbling twice in the NFC championship game and missing time in Green Bay’s season-ending loss due to injury. The standout running back is now a few weeks away from free agency.
The Packers and their starting back engaged in extension discussions last year, but those did not go especially well. Jones changed agents and is now with Drew Rosenhaus ahead of free agency. The Packers are believed, however, to have offered Jones a deal including a top-five running back salary, Rob Demovsky of ESPN.com notes. The issue — as it often does — came down to guarantees. Big guaranteed cash was absent in Green Bay’s proposal, Demovsky adds.
A top-five running back salary would land in the $12MM range. Jones’ draft classmates Dalvin Cook ($12.6MM) and Joe Mixon ($12MM) helped set the second-tier running back market last year, with Christian McCaffrey and Alvin Kamara joining Ezekiel Elliott on $15MM-plus-AAV deals. Derrick Henry also accepted a $12.5MM-AAV pact at the franchise tag deadline.
Everyone in this bracket has a contract including at least $16MM in full guarantees save for Mixon, whose Bengals re-up includes just $10MM guaranteed total. McCaffrey, Elliott and Henry signed for at least $25MM fully guaranteed, while Kamara’s pact includes $34MM in total guarantees.
Green Bay also has Jones change-of-pace back Jamaal Williams unsigned for 2021 but drafted A.J. Dillon in the 2020 second round. The team has not given a notable contract to a running back since extending Ryan Grant 13 years ago. Re-signing Williams and pairing him with Dillon would certainly come cheaper for Green Bay as well.
Jones is coming off back-to-back 1,000-yard seasons. His second such season was lower on touchdowns (nine), but the former fifth-round pick managed 5.5 yards per carry on 201 carries — up from a 4.6 average in 2019. Jones joins fellow 2017 draftees Chris Carson and Marlon Mack in being unsigned ahead of free agency. Cardinals transition-tagged back Kenyan Drake is also unsigned, and Broncos two-time 1,000-yard rusher Phillip Lindsay is a restricted free agent. The franchise tag for backs may well drop from the 2020 mark, when Henry’s tag cost $10.2MM, but the cap’s expected reduction stands to limit tag usage this year. That could create an interesting marketplace at this position.
The Packers also have All-Pro center Corey Linsley due for free agency and just signed David Bakhtiari to a record extension. Linsley, 29, is seeking his third contract, but no substantial Packers-Linsley discussions are believed to have occurred yet.
Coaches, Execs Believe Aaron Rodgers Wants Out Of Green Bay
No matter how hard Aaron Rodgers tries to downplay his comments at his post-NFC Championship Game press conference, it’s clear the speculation isn’t going away anytime soon. Rodgers, of course, raised plenty of eyebrows by saying his future was “uncertain” after the Packers’ heartbreaking loss to the Buccaneers.
Green Bay has gone into damage control mode, with team CEO Mark Murphy declaring emphatically that Rodgers would be back in 2021, and that “we’re not idiots.” But despite all that, coaches and execs around the league remain “convinced a bitter divorce is pending” between the two sides, Jason La Canfora of CBS Sports writes. La Canfora reports that head coaches and GMs told him this, which would obviously be interesting to say the least.
La Canfora’s sources contend there is tension between Rodgers and head coach Matt LaFleur, with one NFL head coach saying “it’s never really been good between him and the coach. It’s been a long feeling-out process, and it looks like it’s over.” If true, it’s a pretty remarkable turn of events considering Rodgers is coming off a season that will see him named league MVP shortly.
One assistant coach said Rodgers’ unhappiness is “the worst kept secret in football” and that he was “sending a signal to the rest of the league” with his comments. One long-time NFL exec says “trust me. The quarterback wants out.” Rodgers’ contract runs through the 2023 season, but La Canfora speculates he could force a trade by threatening to retire if one isn’t granted.
The Packers, if you’ll recall, brought a lot of this drama upon themselves by drafting Jordan Love in the first-round last April. As the Eagles learned the hard way after drafting Jalen Hurts in the second-round, it’s nearly impossible to avoid controversy when drafting a quarterback high with one already on the roster.
The Love pick clearly stung Rodgers at the time, and he responded with by far his best season in years. It’s likely the Packers weren’t expecting that kind of late-career resurgence when drafting Love. It’s rare for there to be this much talk about blowing things up on a team that is coming off back to back NFC Championship Game appearances, but here we are.
Buckle up, because this surely isn’t the last we’ve heard on this situation as we enter a wild offseason where seemingly everything is up in the air.
NFL Reserve/Futures Contracts: 1/26/21
Here are Tuesday’s reserve/futures deals:
Buffalo Bills
- OL Trey Adams, TE Nate Becker, DT Brandin Bryant, DE Bryan Cox, WR Tanner Gentry, DB Dane Jackson, WR Jake Kumerow, DE Mike Love, DB Josh Thomas, RB Christian Wade, QB Davis Webb, WR Duke Williams
Green Bay Packers
- WR Reggie Begelton, C Jake Hanson, K J.J. Molson, CB KeiVarae Russell, DL Delontae Scott, WR Juwann Winfree
Las Vegas Raiders
- WR Keelan Doss
Miami Dolphins
New York Giants
Packers’ Aaron Rodgers Downplays Comments
Maybe Aaron Rodgers got caught up in the moment. In an interview on Tuesday, the Packers quarterback downplayed the significance of his post-NFC title game comments. 
[RELATED: Rodgers Wants New Contract]
“I don’t think that there’s any reason that I wouldn’t be back. But there’s not many absolutes in this business,” Rodgers told Pat McAfee (Twitter link via NFL.com’s Tom Pelissero). “It’s a slow week.”
After a devastating loss to the Bucs, Rodgers said that his future is “uncertain,” indicating that the 37-year-old might not be with the Packers in 2021. Now, Packers fans can calm down, at least a little bit. The expected 2020 MVP anticipates staying put in Green Bay to pursue yet another Super Bowl ring.
“We’re not idiots,” said Packers CEO Mark Murphy earlier in the day. “Aaron Rodgers will be back, he’s our leader.”
Bringing Rodgers back could require a new contract, one that would put him in the same tier as Patrick Mahomes, Deshaun Watson, Russell Wilson, and Ben Roethlisberger. As it stands, Rodgers is earning roughly as much as Rams quarterback Jared Goff, who could potentially lose his starting job in 2021.
Packers CEO: Aaron Rodgers Will Be Back
The Packers would be crazy to let Aaron Rodgers leave. Or, to put it another way: 
[RELATED: Aaron Rodgers Wants New Contract]
“We’re not idiots,” Packers CEO Mark Murphy said (Twitter link via WNFL’s Mark Daniels). “Aaron Rodgers will be back, he’s our leader.”
After the Packers were eliminated in the NFC Championship Game, Rodgers told reporters that his future is “uncertain.” The latest word is that Rodgers wants the Packers to make a stronger commitment to him. That assurance, in part, would include a reworked contract.
Rodgers was reportedly irked by the Packers’ selection of Jordan Love last April. He responded with a phenomenal season that put them inches away from the Super Bowl. At the time of signing, Rodgers’ deal was a record breaker. Today, he ranks just fifth among quarterbacks in average annual salary, behind Patrick Mahomes ($45MM), Deshaun Watson ($39MM), Russell Wilson ($35MM), and Ben Roethlisberger ($34MM). Now, at ~$33.5MM/year, he’s on the same fiscal tier as Rams QB Jared Goff.
Rodgers, 37, is currently tied to the Packers through the 2023 season.
Packers’ Aaron Rodgers Wants New Deal
Aaron Rodgers wants a new contract, according to a league source who spoke with Mike Florio of PFT. At least, that’s part of what part of what the Packers quarterback is seeking after saying that his future is “uncertain”. 
Rodgers is looking for a stronger commitment from the Packers following their first-round selection of Jordan Love. Currently, he’s slated to make $22.35MM, $25.5MM, and $25.5MM in each of the next three seasons.
At the time of signing in 2018, Rodgers’ four-year, $134MM extension positioned him as the NFL’s highest-paid player of all-time. Today, that’s good for just fifth among quarterbacks. At the age of 37, the likely MVP recipient wants a deal to reflect his status and solidify his relationship with the Packers.
The Packers should be incentivized to rework his deal too. Currently, Rodgers is slated to carry a $37MM cap figure for 2021 — a new deal could smooth out the hit while giving Rodgers a pay bump.
Since taking over as the starter for the Packers in 2008, Rodgers has thrown for 312 touchdowns (the second most in the league) and led the Packers to the playoffs in eight seasons out of ten.
NFL Reserve/Futures Contracts: 1/25/21
Today’s reserve/futures deals:
Buffalo Bills
- WR Tanner Gentry, WR Jake Kumerow, RB Antonio Williams
Green Bay Packers
- OLB Tipa Galeai, LB Scoota Harris, OG Zack Johnson, TE Isaac Nauta, DL Willington Previlon, DL Anthony Rush, CB Stanford Samuels, RB Mike Weber, RB Dexter Williams, P Ryan Winslow
Los Angeles Rams
- S Jake Gervase, QB Devlin Hodges
As a reminder, these are all non-guaranteed deals, usually for practice-squad-type players, to help teams flesh out their 90-man offseason rosters.
Aaron Rodgers: My Future Is ‘Uncertain’
The top-seeded Packers lost in devastating fashion to the Buccaneers in the NFC Championship Game, failing to capitalize on three Tom Brady interceptions by making a string of miscues of their own.
While the loss itself was bad enough, Packers fans were left even more stressed after Aaron Rodgers‘ post-game press conference. Rodgers raised quite a few eyebrows during his media availability, saying there are a lot of players on the team with uncertain futures “myself included,” via Rob Demovsky of ESPN.com. Demovsky says “it’s clear” from his comments that he’s not sure he’ll get another run with the Packers.
Meanwhile veteran Packers reporter Jason Wilde of ESPN tweeted that Rodgers “sure sounded like a guy saying goodbye.” There’s a fair amount of speculation involved here, and it’s certainly possible this turns out to be a big nothing-burger. For his part head coach Matt LaFleur was adamant that he wanted Rodgers back in 2021.
Rodgers is a near-lock to win the NFL’s MVP award for his work this past season, so it’s pretty hard to believe Green Bay brass would be looking to move on even though they did draft Jordan Love in the first-round last April.
The Love situation has always loomed large, but without a preseason or full training camp no one really has any idea how he’s progressed since getting drafted. It’s unclear whether Rodgers was referring to retirement, the Packers moving on, or himself looking to play elsewhere.
In any case, he’s under contract through the 2023 season. He just turned 37 last month, and he certainly didn’t look like he’d started any sort of physical decline this season. We should get some clarifying reporting soon, but at this point it would still be very surprising if anyone other than Rodgers is under center come Week 1. In all likelihood the comments were just the result of emotions running high after a big loss.
NFL Practice Squad Updates: 1/23/21
Here are Saturday’s NFL practice squad decisions:
Buffalo Bills
- Signed: K Tristan Vizcaino
- Released: DB Duke Thomas
Green Bay Packers
- Signed: P Ryan Winslow
- Released: RB Dexter Williams
Minor NFL Transactions: 1/23/21
Here are the latest NFL minor moves:
Baltimore Ravens
- Signed to reserve/futures deal: WR Deon Cain
Buffalo Bills
- Promoted: CB Dane Jackson
Green Bay Packers
- Promoted: DL Brian Price, CB KeiVarae Russell
Kansas City Chiefs
- Promoted: WR Marcus Kemp, DB Chris Lammons
New York Giants
- Signed to reserve/futures deal: DB Keith Washington
Tampa Bay Buccaneers
- Promoted: S Javon Hagan, G Ted Larsen