In this story:

The Green Bay Packers are looking to build on a very successful 2023 season that saw them win a road playoff game and come close to playing in the NFC championship. With Jordan Love progressing as planned they have good reason to believe they can continue to win now. So Green Bay has made a flurry of postseason moves — from bringing in standout safety Xavier McKinney to cutting longtime running back Aaron Jones to make room for Josh Jacobs.

The latter apparently surprised Packers coach Matt LaFleur.

“It kind of caught me off guard, to be honest with you,” LaFleur told 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. It happened really fast, so I don’t know all the details of that. I’m not involved in those types of conversations. But we were super excited [to get Jacobs].”

Jones recorded 889 all-purpose yards and three touchdowns despite missing six games due to injury in 2023. Green Bay had hoped to convince the Pro Bowl back, who spent the first seven years of his career with the franchise, to take a pay cut. He saw things differently and eventually landed a one-year, $7 million deal with the Minnesota Vikings, which will spice things up when those two teams meet twice next fall.

Jacobs is three years younger than Jones and will play on a four-year, $48 million deal. The Packers apparently felt he constituted an upgrade despite a down year in which he had 1,101 total yards and six rushing touchdowns. But the former All-Pro is only one year removed from leading the league in rushing and earning more than 2,000 all-purpose yards. Green Bay is clearly betting Jacobs is poised for a bounce-back season, while Jones’ best years are behind him.

Kyle Koster is an editor at The Big Lead.