Matt LaFleur: Cutting Aaron Jones, signing Josh Jacobs "caught me off guard"
Packers head coach Matt LaFleur says that until the first day that teams could talk to free agents this offseason, he was under the impression that running back Aaron Jones would be back in Green Bay.
Instead, the Packers cut Jones and signed free agent running back Josh Jacobs, and LaFleur said he didn't see that coming.
“It kind of caught me off guard, to be honest with you,” LaFleur said, via 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.”
The Packers had hoped to convince Jones to take a pay cut, but he declined and was released instead. He signed a one-year, $7 million contract with the Vikings, while the Packers gave Jacobs a four-year, $48 million contract.
“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].”
Now they'll see Jones twice a year, and they'll hope Jacobs proves to be an upgrade that LaFleur didn't see coming.
