Fantasy Football Today - 🚨Aaron Jones Back with the Packers! (03/14 Fantasy Football Podcast)

Episode Date: March 14, 2021

The Packers re-signed Aaron Jones, but are we happy about this? Is this good or bad for his value? Jones has been a Top 5 RB in both 2019 and 2020, so why don't we rank him that way? And what do we think about A.J. Dillon now? Subscribe to the FFT in 5 podcast on Apple, Spotify, Google, or wherever you listen to FFT. Follow our FFT team on Twitter: @FFToday, @AdamAizer, @JameyEisenberg, @daverichard, @heathcummingssr, @CTowersCBS, @BenSchragg Watch FFT on YouTube https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCviK78rIWXhZdFzJ1Woi7Fg/videos Join our Facebook group https://www.facebook.com/groups/FantasyFootballToday/ Sign up for the FFT newsletter https://www.cbssports.com/newsletter You can listen to Fantasy Football Today on your smart speakers! Simply say "Alexa, play the latest episode of the Fantasy Football Today podcast" or "Hey Google, play the latest episode of the Fantasy Football Today podcast." To hear more from the CBS Sports Podcast Network, visit https://www.cbssports.com/podcasts/ Want winning picks each morning in under 10 minutes? Subscribe to 'The Early Edge: A Daily SportsLine Betting Podcast' on Apple, Spotify, Stitcher or wherever else you listen to podcasts. To learn more about listener data and our privacy practices visit: https://www.audacyinc.com/privacy-policy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit https://podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Aaron Jones back to the Packers. Four years, $48 million. Bonus pod number five. Jamie, free agency, the tampering period hasn't even begun yet and we hit the over. Yes, we hit the over, but it's cute that you think the tampering period hasn't started yet because they've been tampering for weeks. Tampering period started during the last football season. That's true, that is true, but it's only going to get wilder from here. So Aaron Jones is back, guys. Adam Azer, Dave Richard, Jamie Eisenberg. We're going to talk about it right now on this bonus pod. I do not know

if we're going to have a podcast on Monday. We might have some smaller ones. We're not going to have, I think, a full length, hour long show. That's probably going to be Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday this week. But we'll keep you updated and do what makes sense depending on the news. So Dave, I'll start with you.

You happy about this? Is this good for Aaron Jones? He's been a top five running back two straight seasons in fantasy. It almost guarantees that he'll be a top 12 finisher, if not a top 10 or top five finisher, like you're talking about. He's routinely had over 17 touches per game over the past couple of seasons.

You know what his role is. You know it's not going to change very much. The coaches like him. The offense is great. He's never going to see stacked boxes. This is a good thing for Aaron Jones, and he gets paid on top of it. It's what the Packers have done over the last 10 months is kind of head-scratching when you look at their draft picks and now this signing.

But it'll work for Aaron Jones and it'll keep them very, very relevant in fantasy. Happy, Jamie? Happy and sad. I mean, this is, you know, Dave said the positive for Aaron Jones. You know, it's hard to overlook what he's done. Hopefully the offensive line is going to be okay. I mean, you got Bakhtiari coming off an injury

and they got to pay their center. So those are two pieces that they have to address. But the sad part of this is, you know, A.J. Dillon had a chance to step into a feature role and getting a chance to see what he could have done. It's, it's almost a guarantee that Jamal Williams is gone. So we'll see where he ends up, but you know, for, for those of us who are excited about AJ Dillon and the potential of him

stepping into the featured role, that's not going to happen and happen anytime soon. So you know, that's the downside of this, of anytime soon. So, um, uh, you know, that's the, the downside of this, of this move. And then maybe Aaron Jones, you know, we could have had really two 20 top 20 running backs potentially if Aaron Jones had signed someplace else. Now you only get one, at least from the Packers backfield, you know, so somebody else can have to step into maybe the dolphins roll, the Falcons roll, the Jets roll, you know, wherever Aaron Jones may or may not have gone. But yeah, for A.J. Dillon and Dynasty Leagues, this is not a good day. One thing to keep in mind is let's see what the Packers do at receiver.

Why does that matter? He's been second on the team in targets, Aaron Jones, two straight seasons. So that obviously helps. And it hasn't been a ton of targets. But they got Devin Funches back. I mean, he's not gonna be a 70 catch guy, but he's a 50 catch guy, which is great. And like I said, two straight years as a five,

as a top five running back. Top four. Give him credit. I have him as five this past year. I think he was top three, 2019. And I have him fifth. He was two in 2019,

four in 2020. Sure. According to our CBS Sports stats. I also have him at five. I also have him at five in fantasy points per game. Yes. Seventh in consistency. I think he's good. Yeah, so I've got Kamara

Cook, Henry Montgomery Jones in PPR. That's what I got. Anyway, where do you rank him? And why not top five? What does the man have to do to be top five? I know he's not going to be that high, but where do you guys rank him?

I had him 11th prior to the signing. That was kind of just hey, maybe he'll be here, maybe he'll be there. Let's see where he ends up. I think somewhere around seven or eight is probably fair for him. He's in the Austin Eckler, Nick Chubb, Ezekiel Elliott range, um, you know, behind the Jonathan Taylor and Saquon Barkley group. Um, but yeah, it's, it's, uh, it's a lot to like about Aaron Jones. He'll be a first round pick, you know, somewhere between eight to 12 is I think where he'll end up going. And so he's, uh, he's a guy you should feel pretty

good about knowing that the Packers situation is very favorable for him. Yeah. You can't help, but like him ahead of guys like acres and James Robinson. And I had him behind those guys going into free agency just because I didn't know what his situation would bring. But now that he's going to stay in green Bay, you got to like him a little bit more. If I could nitpick his game just a little bit, I was doing this research before I came on with you guys. How did he do converting downs of three yards or closer? That's always something that I look at with running backs, especially when they're near the goal line. 18 for 34 on downs of three yards to go or closer. He was three for eight when a touchdown was on the line. So, uh-oh, what does that mean? Does that mean that he's not going to get those goal line touches as much? And we know

that Jamal Williams was in there last year. Williams was better overall from three yards to go closer, 16 for 23, but he was only one for five on the goal line. And then there's A.J. Dillon, who you give him three yards or less, he converted that five of the six times he actually did it. None of them were near the goal line. I do wonder if we will see some chicanery from Matt LaFleur and company in Green Bay where Dylan steals some touchdowns. How can you resist not using A.J.

Dylan in that size, especially if you know that Aaron Jones isn't cash money every time you give him the ball with a yard to go. But as we saw last year, though, that they would take him off the field in some certain situations for Jamal Williams, especially late in games. And so now if Jamal Williams is gone, A. AJ Dillon doesn't profile as the guy to replace him. It's going to be more Aaron Jones probably stepping into those roles. So maybe the catches go up a little bit. Maybe the opportunities tick up a little bit as well. So I think Aaron Jones is fine in his situation, even with AJ Dillon there. Jamal Williams had over a hundred carries. You

know, they, they do run the ball a lot. One of the reasons why Aaron Jones is not going to be ranked as a top five running back for a lot of people is he doesn't get that workload. How does his workload measure up? About 18-ish touches per game, a little bit more than that. So Alvin Kamara was at 18, Nick Chubb 18.2, James Robinson 18.1. So he's right there with the guys that go late first,

second round, something like that. But Christian McCaffrey, only three games, but 25.3 touches per game. Dalvin Cook, 22.25. Derek Henry, nearly 25 touches per game. So I guess if you have a concern about Aaron Jones, is it just he averages 5.5 yards per carry? I mean, three of his four seasons have been exactly 5.5 yards per carry. I mean, three of his four seasons have been exactly 5.5 yards per carry. If he doesn't do that, if he's at 4.6 yards per carry, and he was two years ago, but he scored a ton of touchdowns,

does he have bus potential if he's not one of the most efficient running backs in football? The only thing that concerns me right now is the offensive line, to be honest. You know what I mean? Dave's right. Dylan may get some more

short yards opportunities. But again, like I said, I think you see maybe Aaron Jones' receiving go up a little bit without Jamal Williams there, but if the center's gone and Bakhtiari's not ready, we saw the offensive line struggle against Tampa Bay. That was not a pretty performance for them.

If the line is not to the same level, that I think is where you can see Aaron Jones struggle. He's 26 years old. He'll be 27 in December. So this is a... We keep mentioning that number, 26. It's a great, great year for running backs and wide receivers.

A lot of top five finishes from guys who are 26 years old. Any final thoughts, Dave? I'm curious where Jamal Williams ends up. We can speculate on a bunch of different places, but the fact that Aaron Jones stays in Green Bay puts just that much more pressure on the teams that need a running back. And I wonder if one of them will go a little bit higher than they might expect to get somebody like Jamal Williams, who does have some good qualities, who can be a very good 1B running back for a team. I'm starting to think that he could end up being a pretty decent mid-round pick

after all okay and I'll leave you with this for a team that ran the ball as much as they did you might think Aaron Jones should have had more than nine rushing touchdowns last year but when they got inside the five yard line was a lot of Aaron Rodgers and

inside the 10 in particular so Aaron Jones had 60% of his team's carries inside the five yard line. That was 11th in the NFL or 10th in the NFL. And only one player that had a higher percentage of his team's carries inside the five had fewer carries than Aaron Jones. And that was James Robinson. So that evens out a little bit more. You don't get the crazy touchdown number from Aaron Rodgers. You might get more rushing touchdowns from Packers running backs. 2019?

Exactly. I was about to say that. He had 16 rushing touchdowns. And the Packers are already made it clear they're going to draft a punter in round one and a long snapper in round two. I think they might. I think Mack Jones, I think, round one for the Packers.

They got to make some trades, but they need some depth at quarterback. All right, to David. Mack Jones may be go into another team, and we're going to have to do an emergency podcast right after this is done. What do you mean? Oh, we'll tease. Uh-oh.

Okay. I mean, should we just keep going? No, do a separate one. It's worth it. The other one deserves its own. Okay. Okay. This is the Aaron Jones bonus pod.

I don't know what's coming next. I didn't see the news. I'm excited to find out. Thanks for tuning in, everybody. We'll talk to you soon.