Supply: Packers to signal Josh Jacobs, launch Aaron Jones

For the primary time since 2017, the Green Bay Packers can have a brand new No. 1 working again.

Free agent Josh Jacobs has reached a four-year, $48 million cope with the Packers, who in flip have advised Aaron Jones he is being launched, a supply advised ESPN’s Adam Schefter on Monday.

Jacobs’ deal additionally contains $12.5 million assured, a supply advised Schefter.

Jacobs, 26, responded to being slapped with a $10.091 million franchise tag final season by not signing it and skipping the whole Las Vegas Raiders‘ offseason program, coaching camp and preseason. He agreed to a restructured $11.791 million, one-year deal and had the worst season of his five-year profession — ending with lows in video games performed (13), speeding yards (805), yards per carry (3.5), speeding touchdowns (6), speeding first downs (34) and yards from scrimmage (1,101).

Jones, in the meantime, has averaged 5.0 yards per carry over 97 video games since being draft by Inexperienced Bay in 2017. In his seven seasons, Jones, 29, had rushed for five,940 yards and scored 63 whole touchdowns (45 speeding, 18 receiving). He additionally has caught 272 passes for two,076 yards.

A bit of greater than a month in the past, Packers basic supervisor Brian Gutekunst mentioned Jones “completely” could be again in Inexperienced Bay.

That was seemingly earlier than he ever knew that he may land Jacobs.

Jones may return to the Packers if the marketplace for a 29-year-old working again is not to his liking. A yr in the past, he took a $5 million pay lower to return to Inexperienced Bay for whole compensation of $11 million in 2023, together with an $8.52 million signing bonus.

He was scheduled to make as much as $12 million this season, together with wage ($11.1 million) and bonuses ($500,000 for offseason exercises and as much as $400,000 for video games lively).

Although Jones is coming off his least productive common season (142 carries, 656 yards, 2 touchdowns) since his rookie yr, he rushed for greater than half of that within the remaining three video games. Within the staff’s two playoff video games, Jones rushed for a mixed 226 yards with three touchdowns on 39 carries (a 5.8 yards common).

“He definitely had an influence on the sport and an influence on our offense, an influence on our staff with our late-season push,” Packers coach Matt LaFleur mentioned after the season. “I do not know if we do all that with out him. That is all a part of the method.”

Jones is the one participant in NFL historical past with 5,000-plus speeding yards (5,940), 45-plus speeding touchdowns (45), a mean of 5.0-plus yards per carry (5.04), 250-plus catches (272), 2,000-plus receiving yards (2,076) and 15-plus landing catches (18) in his first seven seasons.

“He was such a difference-maker when he was on the market this yr,” Gutekunst mentioned earlier within the offseason. “The best way our offense was capable of transfer. The best way he modified quite a lot of the way in which we operated when he was in there and when he was wholesome. I feel for us, it is discovering a technique to maintain him on the market and maintain him wholesome. Not solely on the sphere however, and also you guys know this, you guys have been round right here, he is such an influential chief in our locker room. He is simply actually the heartbeat of our staff. That is definitely the anticipation, that he’ll be again.”

Now, it is the youthful Jacobs, 26, who turns into the focus of the working recreation, which additionally may lose backup AJ Dillon in free company.

The 5-foot-10, 223-pound Jacobs missed the Raiders’ remaining 4 video games with a quad damage. The minus-2 yards he had on 9 carries at Buffalo in Week 2 represented the primary time a reigning speeding champ had damaging speeding yards in a recreation for the reason that 1970 AFL-NFL merger.

This got here after he was first-team All-Professional in 2022, when he led the NFL in yards from scrimmage (2,053 yards) in addition to speeding (1,653).

A two-time Professional Bowl choice and solely the third Raiders participant to guide the league in speeding, together with Marcus Allen (1985) and Clem Daniels (AFL in 1963), Jacobs has rushed for five,545 yards in his profession (4.2 yards per carry), second most within the NFL since 2019, behind solely Derrick Henry‘s 7,209 yards.

Jacobs’ 46 profession speeding touchdowns are the second most within the NFL since 2019, behind Henry’s 68. Jacobs’ 6,993 scrimmage yards are the fourth most in that point, trailing Henry (8,295), Christian McCaffrey (7,454) and Tyreek Hill (7,173).

Although Jacobs has 197 profession receptions, he has but to catch a TD go.

ESPN’s Paul Gutierrez contributed to this report.