Green Bay RB Aaron Jones explains contract restructuring: 'I didn't want to be greedy'

Green Bay Packers running back Aaron Jones wanted to stay home when he restructured his contract.

Amid a lot of uncertainty with quarterback Aaron Rodgers due to his pending trade to the Jets, Jones made it clear he wanted to stay in Green Bay. He could’ve asked for quite a bit of money in his new deal, or even just kept it at $16 million.

However, he took what he didn’t call a “pay cut.”

“This is home for me,” Jones said via Cody Krupp of FOX 11. “Those guys in the locker room, those are my brothers. The people upstairs, they believe in me, and they believed in me since I’ve gotten here….

“It just made sense, deal-wise. The market for running backs, there was a huge gap between $16 million and Christian McCaffrey, who’s at 12 (million). I wouldn’t say pay cut because I never made $11 million in my career, so this is still the most I’ve ever made, and it still has me as the second-highest paid for the backs, so it matched up with the market.”

Jones restructured his deal back in February, dropping his salary to $11 million for the year.

As part of Jones’ four-year, $48 million contract that he signed back in March of 2021, there was a potential out in the deal this offseason. It appeared both sides, though, had a mutual interest in reworking things in a way that would allow him to return in the end.

Jones spent all six seasons of his NFL career as a Packer. In that time, he has been the biggest part of the team’s offensive attack that didn’t include Rodgers or Davante Adams. Jones rushed for 5,284 yards in his career as a three-time 1,000-yard rusher while also scoring 43 touchdowns on the ground. That includes a league-leading 16 rushing touchdowns in 2019.

Jones was also a key target out of the backfield with 242 catches, 1,843 receiving yards, and 17 more touchdowns.

Jones was a fifth-round draft pick out of UTEP in the 2017 NFL Draft by Green Bay.

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As a member of the Class of 2013, Jones was a three-star recruit out of El Paso (Texas) Burges, according to the On3 Industry Ranking, a weighted average that utilizes all four major recruiting media companies. He was the No. 207 overall prospect in the state, the No. 142 running back in the class and the No. 1,339 overall prospect in the class.