During the latter part of the Aaron Rodgers era, the Green Bay Packers had a solid tag team duo at the running back position. AJ Dillon and Aaron Jones manned the offensive backfield, and in particular, Jones was a workhorse for the Packers.
He made a name for himself as a dual-threat back who was very efficient on the ground, and in seven seasons with Green Bay, he went over the 1,000-yard mark three times and was tied for the most rushing touchdowns in the NFL with 16 during the 2019 campaign.
Jones left the team after it released him last offseason, and he signed with, of all teams, the Minnesota Vikings on a one-year contract. He had a strong year with Minnesota in 2024, but he is going to become a free agent again.
Ian Valentino of The 33rd Team predicted where several prominent free agent running backs will end up this offseason, and he had Jones heading south to join the Dallas Cowboys.
“Signing a 30-year-old running back who was barely more productive than your in-house talent who turns 27 this summer isn’t usually good business, but the Dallas Cowboys aren’t flush with cap space,” Valentino wrote. “Considering their long list of needs and limited assets to find help on both sides of the ball, taking calculated risks is part of the equation. Aaron Jones can be part of the answer in the backfield.
“It’s not a secret Dallas lacks playmaking at running back. Rico Dowdle emerged as a viable option when blocking is good, but he’s not especially explosive or well-rounded.”
Dowdle ran for 1,079 yards in 2024, but he scored just two rushing touchdowns, and he himself is going to be a free agent. The season prior, he only had 361 rushing yards and averaged 4.1 yards per carry, so it is always possible that if he were to remain with Dallas, his production would regress to the mean in 2025.
Dallas was 27th in rushing yards, 30th in yards per rush attempts and last in rushing touchdowns during the 2024 campaign. Jones may not be a long-term solution for a Cowboys franchise that hasn’t lived up to its bluster in a long time, but he could, at worst, be a nice stopgap solution in the meantime.
Jones going to Dallas would be ironic given the big games he has had against Dallas in the past. Packers fans will remember the 118 rushing yards and three touchdowns he had in the wild-card round of the 2023-24 NFL Playoffs when the Packers blasted “America’s Team” 48-32. In three regular-season games versus the Cowboys, he has averaged 123.3 rushing yards a game and scored a total of six rushing touchdowns.
