Green Bay Packers head coach Matt LaFleur apparently did not expect his team to sign running back Josh Jacobs and then proceed to release Aaron Jones.
LaFleur recently spoke on the Packers’ free-agent activity and seemed to be blindsided by Green Bay’s decisions at the halfback position.
“It kind of caught me off guard, to be honest with you,” LaFleur said, via Jason Wilde of The Wisconsin State Journal. “There were some other things in play, obviously with Aaron Jones, and I didn’t quite know how everything was going to go. It just happened really fast on that Monday.”
It seems hard to imagine that LaFleur had no clue the Packers were interested in Jacobs, but he seems to be saying that he did not expect things to happen so quickly.
“It happened really fast, so I don’t know all the details of that,” LaFleur said. “I’m not involved in those types of conversations. But we were super excited [to get Jacobs].”
Perhaps LaFleur simply did not know that releasing Jones was something that the front office had zeroed in on once it agreed to a deal with Jacobs, but he must have at least heard whispers about it.
He is the head coach, after all.
Jacobs was originally selected by the Oakland Raiders with the 24th overall pick of the 2019 NFL Draft. He made a couple of Pro Bowls with the Raiders and also earned a First-Team All-Pro selections in 2022 after leading the league with 1,653 rushing yards.
He had a down year this past season, missing four games due to injury and registering just 805 yards as a rusher while averaging a meager 3.5 yards per carry.
Meanwhile, Jones spent the first seven years of his career in Green Bay and made one Pro Bowl with the club. He hit the 1,000-yard mark three times, topping out at 1,121 yards in 2022.
Aaron Jones went on to sign with the NFC North division rival Minnesota Vikings.
We’ll see if Josh Jacobs represents a big upgrade in the Packers’ backfield next season.
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