Milwaukee Journal Sentinel - Packer Plus
New contract for Aaron Jones could be GM’s next priority
Green Bay — The first Green Bay Packers contract-extension domino has fallen. Before the season is finished we might find out who’s next on general manager Brian Gutekunst’s priority list.
Gutekunst signed left tackle David Bakhtiari to a new deal late Saturday night, about 12 hours before kickoff of the Packers’ 24-20 win over the Jacksonville Jaguars on Sunday. Then after the game the GM left the door open to re-signing another impending free agent before the 2020 season is finished, presumably from among Aaron Jones, Kevin King and Corey Linsley.
Gutekunst has good reason to try to finish another deal this year. It would allow an extra season to spread around salary-cap money and stay under a 2021 cap that probably will drop to $175 million from $198 million this year.
Bakhtiari’s new deal surely was structured to count as little as possible against next year’s cap.
“We have some players that are coming up that we’d certainly like to re-sign if we can,” Gutekunst said when asked if he might get another deal done before the end of the season.
Bakhtiari clearly had been the priority from the start. He plays left tackle, which is a premium position because it demands blocking the best pass rushers in the league on the quarterback’s blind side. The deal suggests Gutekunst didn’t seriously entertain the possibility of letting Bakhtiari walk next year and replacing him with, say, versatile second-year pro Elgton Jenkins, who in a stint at left tackle last week at least showed the potential he could be able to handle the job. If Bakhtiari walked, the money saved could go to other players, from within and outside the organization.
But Bakhtiari is 29 and at a position where it’s not uncommon for players to perform at a high level into their early 30s. He should remain one of the league’s best left tackles for two more years, at least, and it would hardly be a
surprise if it extended beyond that.
“He’s an elite player at an elite position,” Gutekunst said, “and we felt it was important to lock him up and I think it helps us go forward with some of the other things we want to do.”
According to a report from ESPN, the four new years on Bakhtiari’s contract average $23 million a year, and with this year included the five-year deal is worth $20.7 million. Both of those top the previously highest-paid offensive lineman, Houston’s Laremy Tunsil, at $22 million and $19 million in those categories.
“That is something special that I’ve been chasing really ever since I got in the league,” Bakhtiari said. “I have goals, very lofty ones, and I always wanted to
say that I was the highest-paid offensive lineman in NFL history and today I get to say that.”
The best guess is that Jones is Gutekunst’s next priority. The running back is arguably the second-most important player to the Packers’ offense, behind only Aaron Rodgers, because of the dynamic element he brings and his versatility in the passing game. Against the Jaguars on Sunday he rushed for only 46 yards but also had five catches for 45 yards and a big blitz pickup on a Rodgers scramble and pass to Marquez ValdesScantling that converted a third down on a touchdown drive.
Retaining Linsley at center for a salary in the presumed $9 million salary range could be tough because of the money now invested in the offensive line with Bakhtiari. But that also depends on what happens with Jones and King.
Going into the season it was a tougher call on whether to re-sign Jones or King. Jones is a playmaker but at a position that carries the highest risk for injury and quick decline. King, on the other hand, is a good player at a premium position (cornerback), and the Packers’ depth behind him is shaky at best. But he’d also been hurt frequently – he’d missed 18 of 48 games his first three seasons.
Now that King has missed the last five games (quad injury), though, it would be hard to justify signing him to a lucrative extension. That’s the upside for the team waiting until later in the season to do an extension. Gutekunst got to see whether King’s health would hold up for a second straight year, and it hasn’t.
Now with the highest priority finished before the end of the season, Gutekunst can use the franchise tag on Jones at a salary OverTheCap estimates will be $10.8 million. That’s in part what Gutekunst meant when he spoke Sunday of the flexibility getting Bakhtiari done in 2020 affords, though the GM no doubt would much prefer signing Jones to an extension that keeps the running back’s cap number low in 2021, just like Bakhtiari.
“This year I think is going to be a unique free-agent class, only because a lot of teams are going to be trying to get under the ($175 million) number, whatever that comes out to be,” Gutekunst said. “The players that might become available to us during the March period may be a little different than it has in the past, and we want to have some flexibility to do those things if we can. So I think it’s a combination of that. We’ve always believed that we’d like to take care of our own first, that’s very important to us, but we’d also like to have some flexibility to see what the market might bring in March.”
The Packers played a football game Sunday, and though they didn’t play well against a one-win team they came out with the win. But the Bakhtiari deal is the bigger news. Will Jones be next?