While he’s been gone for about a year now, Green Bay Packers fans may still be interested in Aaron Jones’s future. The third-leading rusher in Packers history crossed state lines to sign with the rival Minnesota Vikings last season but is hitting the free agent market again as his one-year deal expired.
The Vikings and Jones’s camp decided to push back the void date of his contract last month to create extra time to negotiate a deal but nothing appears imminent as the start of free agency approaches on March 12. This has led to speculation that Jones could wind up with another division rival in 2025 but the picture became clearer thanks to a big report on Monday morning.
Report Clarifies Aaron Jones’s Future With Vikings
Sportskeeda’s Tony Pauline touched on Jones’s future in a notebook stemming from last week’s NFL Scouting Combine. While he noted the Vikings are interested in bringing back Jones next season, he also noted that they wanted to do so at a similar price to the one-year, $7 million contract he signed last season.
After seven seasons with the Packers, Jones was a success in his first season in Minnesota. He ran the ball a career-high 255 times for 1,138 yards and five touchdowns and added 51 catches for 408 yards and two touchdowns in the passing game.
While Jones put up solid numbers and was an upgrade over 2023 starter Alexander Mattison, he also posted the second-lowest success rate (defined as the frequency a ball carrier gets 40% of yards needed on first down, 60% of yards needed on second down and 100% of yards needed on third and fourth down) of his career at 49.8%.
The Vikings offensive line didn’t help matters as Christian Darrisaw went down with a season-ending knee injury last October. But it’s also interesting that while The Athletic’s Alec Lewis noted that Minnesota met with Jones’s agent Drew Rosenhaus at the combine, they also want to establish a committee approach by potentially selecting a running back in this year’s draft.
“The Vikings want to re-sign Jones, but even if they do, they are seeking more of a by-committee approach,” Lewis wrote. “Expect the Vikings to take a running back in the draft.”
Packers fans know that Jones is a team-first player but also has a sense of his own value after refusing to renegotiate his contract last spring. If the Vikings make a similar offer, Jones could be on his way to another running back needy team and make another stop as he enters the back end of his career.