Acme Packing Company
The two sides are trying to work out a new contract
Last offseason, the Green Bay Packers controversially replaced their former Pro Bowl running back, Aaron Jones, with Josh Jacobs, a free agent signing from the Las Vegas Raiders. One year in, I’d argue that the Packers made the right decision, in part because Jacobs is so much younger. However, Jones’ release did lead to him signing with the in-division rival Minnesota Vikings.
On his one-year deal, Jones was able to record 255 carries — the most in his NFL career — for 1,138 rushing yards — again, the most of his NFL career — and five rushing touchdowns. He also caught 51 balls for 408 yards and two touchdowns.
Now, it appears that the Vikings and Jones want to double down for the 2025 season. On Saturday, Minnesota and Jones pushed the void date on his contract from next Monday to the final day before the start of free agency. This gives the Vikings an extended window to try to find a contract that they and Jones can come to terms with that would prevent the dead cap from the void years on his contract to accelerate onto the salary cap in 2025.
In short: They’re trying to work things out. There’s no promise that they’ll actually sign an extension. The Packers and Jones had contract talks deep into the 2024 offseason before deciding to part ways. This does mean that the two sides are trying to get an extension done, though.
Last year, Jones was paid $7 million by the Vikings, but only half of that counted on Minnesota’s cap sheet for 2024. That $3.5 million remaining, Jones’ dead cap in void years, is what will accelerate onto the Vikings’ salary cap in 2025, should Minnesota fail to extend Jones before his void date deadline.
At the moment, the Vikings rank seventh in the league in 2025 cap space with $58 million freed up. The team is set to lose the most snaps of any NFL team this free agency cycle, though, so they will likely use a lot of that cap space to retain their own before free agency even starts. On top of that, Minnesota only has one draft pick, their first-round pick, in the first four rounds of the 2025 draft.
Without cheap rookie deals to help backfill these snaps, the Vikings will have to walk a tightrope to keep a competitive veteran roster together next year.
