Running back Aaron Jones reached a deal with the Green Bay Packers on a $ 48 million four-year deal, including a $ 13 million signing bonus, ESPN agent Drew Rosenhaus told ESPN’s Adam Schefter.
“We anticipated bigger offers at the free agency, but Aaron wanted to stay with the Packers,” Rosenhaus told ESPN.
The Packers decided not to use their franchise brand in Jones before the deadline to do so last Tuesday and, instead, continued negotiations on a long-term contract.
Jones tweeted “let’s go back” on Sunday.
Let’s go back #GoPackGo pic.twitter.com/wW20Xti3QR
– Aaron Jones 3️⃣3️⃣ (@ Showtyme_33) March 14, 2021
He also said, “I’m happy to be able to continue playing where I started my career” on Instagram Live.
Jones, a fifth round pick by the Packers outside UTEP in 2017, came in fourth in the NFL last season with 1,104 run yards, despite losing two games with a calf injury. He made his first Pro Bowl – becoming the lowest draft Packers since Dorsey Levens (also chosen in the fifth round) in 1997 to do so.
It was Jones’ second consecutive 1,000-yard run season. He ran for 1,084 yards and led the NFL with 19 touchdowns in 2019. Including that season’s playoffs, he scored 23 times, the maximum in one season in the team’s history.
Jones, 26, is one of only two players in NFL history to post over 3,000 rushing yards (3,364) and over 35 rushing touchdowns (37), averaging over 5 yards per transport (5 , 2) in its first four seasons. Jim Brown is the other.
The Packers have been in contract negotiations with Jones since February 2020. At the end of last season, Jones, who was frustrated by the lack of guaranteed money the team was offering, switched agents and hired Rosenhaus. At the time, the Packers offered Jones a deal that would pay him among the NFL’s top five running backs on average per year, a source told ESPN, but not in guaranteed money.
The Packers summoned running back AJ Dillon in the second round of last year as insurance against the loss of Jones and / or Jamaal Williams, who was also entering the final year of his contract.