So much for overpaying to run again.
The full contract details for Aaron Jones, who shares the Green Bay Packers, turned the four-year, $ 48 million deal initially reported into a team deal that equates to a two-year deal for about $ 20 million. of dollars and that makes Jones one of the best values in the NFL in 2021.
Thanks to the overloaded structuring of the deal, Jones will account for just $ 4,475,000 against the Packers ’salary cap in 2021, an incredible price to start a second contract for one of the game’s most explosive and productive runners.
For the past two seasons, Jones has been fifth in the NFL in yards (3,017) and second in touchdowns (30). He is also one of the last three runners to produce at least 3,000 yards in total and get 30 touchdowns, joining Derrick Henry and Dalvin Cook.
Henry’s limit reached in 2021 is $ 13.5 million. Cook, like Jones, has a manageable limit of just over $ 5.1 million.
Overall, Jones has the 13th highest hit among NFL runners next season.
All the great players in the rookie deals have great value. This is how the system works. But it’s much harder to find the same great values in great players signed on a second contract like Jones. For 2021 and at least the next two years, the Packers have Jones and the second round to pick AJ Dillon under contract at a reasonable cost.
In fact, next year, Jones and Dillon will cost about $ 5.7 million. The pair could be the best 1-2 hit when they return to the NFL in 2021 and will take up less than half of the maximum space that the Titans use on Henry.
Note that the Packers entertained Jones ’use of the franchise tag to keep him out of the free agency. Its use would have cost about $ 8.7 million in 2021. The Packers approved, and now have Jones under long-term contract and with a limit reached this year that costs about half the amount of the label.
Even in 2022, when Jones ’cap rises to $ 9 million, he will still only get the seventh cap among runners. And by 2023, when a massive list bonus has to be paid and their basic salaries begin to rise, the Packers will surely move on or restructure the last two years of the deal. Cutting Jones after the 2022 season will create a $ 6.5 million deadly limit, but it will save the Packers nearly $ 13 million.
The dead limit is actually a good way to see the value of Jones in 2021. Of the 32 NFL teams, 19 have more dead money (or money limit spent on players who are no longer on the roster) than it will cost. Jones to the Packers this season. .