The family was, as it always prefers to be, together.
They had boarded a cruise and were motoring around slowly near the Caribbean. Aaron Jones was taking it easy alongside his mother, Vurgess, his twin brother, Alvin, and a handful of loved ones. Aaron’s son, Aaron Jr., zig-zagged around the boat, his dark braids flopping just like his father’s. This relaxed scene was blissful and typical for a man who makes his living getting pummeled by defenders.
Vacation had arrived several months earlier when the Green Bay Packers lost to the San Francisco 49ers in a divisional-round playoff battle. Jones had met the moment the way he always does, pressing the edge, cutting vertically, spinning off tacklers, stiff-arming defenders, wiggling his way between blockers, gliding into space and falling forward for extra yardage. He provided 108 yards rushing that night, and, although he was disappointed the team’s playoff run had ended, he and the Packers returned to Green Bay believing they were entering another successful era.
Days after that final loss, Jones packed up the belongings from his locker into a trash bag. He hugged teammates and coaches and braced for the offseason. Exiting the facility in the heart of the football town he’d called home for seven years, he did not feel any extra emotion. He left thinking he’d be back. On Feb. 1, when asked if he expected the 29-year-old Jones to return in 2024, Packers general manager Brian Gutekunst said, “Absolutely.”
Baking in the sun on the cruise a couple of months later, Jones realized his return was no longer assured. As The Athletic’s Matt Schneidman reported at the time, the Packers sought to significantly lower Jones’ salary-cap figure. Talks stalled. Green Bay presented another offer to Jones’ agent, Drew Rosenhaus, and Jones’ camp declined, so the Packers released him. A day later, Jones signed with the rival Minnesota Vikings. The family learned of Jones’ plans on their vacation.
GO DEEPER
Aaron Jones isn’t the first former Packer to return to Lambeau, but this one feels different
“It happened very quickly,” said Chelsi’Rae Walker, Jones’ sister. “It was just like changing a job. It happened very fast. Very, very fast.”
Once the cruise docked and the vacation ended, the ramifications of Jones’ move reverberated. Walker thought about the furniture they’d gotten for Jones’ home. In her mind, she replayed scenes in the Packers locker room of Jones’ son, who’d grown up tossing footballs, gnawing PB&J sandwiches and smacking bubblegum with his dad’s teammates.
Jones, however, moved forward as if all of this was business as usual. He barely mentioned the Packers in his first press conference in Minnesota. Even this week, as the Vikings gear up for Sunday’s game against the Packers at Lambeau Field, Jones refused to make any bold statements or take any shots.
It’s not that he wasn’t surprised by Green Bay’s decision to move on from him. It’s not that he doesn’t want the folks wearing green and gold Sunday to hang their heads as he and his new team thrive. It’s just that this move — Green Bay choosing someone else over him, and him performing for a new team that did choose him — is emblematic of Jones’ story.
Aaron Jones grew up in one of the most overlooked towns in Texas. El Paso is quite literally situated so far to the west side of Texas that you start to wonder why New Mexico doesn’t just claim it. It’s in the Mountain time zone, unlike the state’s other big cities.
Jones was born in Savannah, Ga., and his family lived in Germany and Hampton, Va., before moving to El Paso as he neared high school. His parents, Vurgess and Alvin Sr., served in the Army and were asked to relocate. They arrived, and Jones, who had looked up to Tyrod Taylor and Percy Harvin as a youth in Virginia, assimilated through sports the way he always had. He hooped. He played football. He ran track. Coaches marveled not only at his abilities but also his grace. Manny Herrera, Jones’ high school track coach at Burges High School, said the first time he ever watched Jones run, he lost and immediately approached the boy who beat him to shake his hand and congratulate him.
As a junior, Jones raced the second leg of a 4×400-meter relay race. When the stadium announcer introduced Burges, he called them by the wrong name.
“They didn’t even know what the hell our colors were,” Herrera said.
So, what were they?
Purple and gold.
Jones typically looped around the track in 50 seconds. On a fast day, he clocked 49. At the state championship, timekeepers clicked their stopwatches and saw: 47. A smile formed on Jones’ face when Burges realized it had won. To this day, Herrera said, no other El Paso team has even medaled.
Jones starred on the football team, too. Marcus Graham, the Burges coach, recently touted Jones’ two-way play, calling him “the Travis Hunter of El Paso.” Jones floated into the secondary as a safety, and he darted through the line of scrimmage as a running back. Recruiting websites classified him as a two-star. Few colleges came in to see him. Once, according to Graham, New Mexico’s coaches planned a visit. Vurgess and Alvin Sr. even cooked dinner for them. They didn’t show.
Some colleges told Graham that at 5-foot-9, Jones was too small. Others believed Jones’ dominance was more a byproduct of the lack of competition than his ability.
That lack of belief served as fuel for Jones. As a senior, he averaged 12.1 yards per carry, and, in his final playoff game against Wichita Falls Rider, he galloped for 335 yards. An opposing linebacker was quoted afterward as saying, “That was the most legitimate running back we played.”
UTEP, at the very least, understood. They offered Jones and his twin, Alvin. Jones toted the rock in his first game as a freshman. He totaled 127 yards and two touchdowns on 11 carries. The opponent? New Mexico, of course.
When Walker thinks of their father, Alvin Sr., she pictures him in one of two uniforms: his military attire or Dallas Cowboys gear.
“He would wear them all the time, everywhere,” she said. “He had every hat, shorts, I mean, everybody knew my dad was a Cowboys fan.”
The preferred path, then, was obvious. Jones would excel at UTEP, and Dallas would draft the hometown kid. The former happened. Jones averaged 5.2 yards per carry as a freshman and began his sophomore season with a 237-yard performance, again against New Mexico, completing the year with 1,321 yards. His junior season was derailed by injury, but he responded with 1,773 yards as a senior.
Aaron Jones ran for 4,114 yards and 33 touchdowns in his four years at UTEP. (Eric Espada / Getty Images)
Enough to warrant an early round draft pick, right? Especially with coaches like offensive coordinator Patrick Higgins telling scouts: “A quality man, not just a quality football player, with phenomenal parents who instilled in him and his siblings a special set of values.”
Still, Jones slipped to the fifth round. The Cowboys, who had expressed interest, passed again and again. Ultimately, the Packers, who had already selected running back Jamaal Williams in the fourth round, called and said they had drafted him. The family was together on the couch that afternoon in 2017, and Walker had recognized her brother’s reaction to Dallas and so many others passing on him.
Jones shrugged. Why should he expect to be valued, to be prioritized, after the arc that led him to UTEP? So many great athletes conjure up perceived slights, stacking motivation for their own continued ascent. Truly, though, Jones was both spurned and overlooked.
“He’s never been someone whom everyone else focused on,” Walker said. “They have always slept on him. He has always had to do the extraordinary to get the acknowledgment.”
Jockeying for playing time early in his rookie season, he played sparingly. Then Jones exploded for 125 yards and a touchdown on 19 carries … against the Cowboys. By 2019, he had become the Packers’ bellcow. Where do you think his biggest game took place? Yep, in Week 5 of that season in Dallas, Jones scored four touchdowns, ran for 107 yards on 19 carries and caught seven passes for 75 yards against the Cowboys.
The next three seasons set Jones up for where he is now. Aaron Jr. was born in 2020. A few months later, his father, mentor and friend, Alvin Sr., died from complications with COVID-19. From 2021 to 2023, Jones suffered multiple injuries, preventing him from his typical cutting, spinning, stiff-arming, wiggling, gliding and falling forward.
Running parallel to Jones’ arc, even as he torched the Cowboys again for 118 yards and three touchdowns in the playoffs last January, was a change in the ways teams value running backs. Green Bay preferred youth and less cost being tied up in the position. Minnesota, having been on the other end of Jones’ pyrotechnics for seven years, learned the news and acted quickly. Vikings coach Kevin O’Connell even joked that in the free-agent pitch, he offered to drive Jones west himself.
In his last game as a Packer, Jones ran for 108 yards against the 49ers. (Kyle Terada / USA Today)
A couple of weeks ago, Walker’s young daughter watched as her uncle took a handoff, scooted into the left side of the end zone and leaped into the crowd in New York against the Giants. Walker’s daughter blurted, “Mommy, he looks so happy!”
Walker peered down at her daughter and smiled her approval.
AARON JONES FIRST TD AS A VIKING!!! 😤
📺: FOX pic.twitter.com/e0ZwFN5sQo
— FOX Sports: NFL (@NFLonFOX) September 8, 2024
Even in August, Jones was telling reporters how good he’d felt and how motivated he was. When pressed one afternoon about what was pushing him so hard, he did not invoke the Packers. But he did reference a ranking of NFL running backs that categorized him outside the top 10.
His twin brother, Alvin, attended nearly every training camp practice with Aaron Jr., and just as Jones jogged out to the field, he would walk over and high-five his son. Minutes later, he was blazing through drills like he had something to prove.
“He looked happy, free, fresh, young and healthy,” Walker said. “He doesn’t look like he’s about to turn 30, you know?”
No, he does not. Only Saquon Barkley and J.K. Dobbins are averaging more yards per carry this season than Jones among qualified running backs. He is 10th in the NFL in rushing with 228 yards through three games. According to Next Gen Stats, Jones’ max speed (19.9 mph) ranks eighth among running backs. The production is inarguable. In many ways, Jones has single-handedly transformed the Vikings ground game.
He has also impacted the locker room, filling a void on the offense (alongside Justin Jefferson) created by the departure of Dalvin Cook. Coaches, teammates, executives and even fans appreciate Jones for who he is as much as what he’s done.
That’s not to say the Packers didn’t. Jones penned a story for The Players Tribune on Wednesday about feeling “seen.” The piece was written with class, and Jones held a news conference Wednesday, invoking no ill will.
He has never been one to talk pretentiously, never been one to create headlines with anything other than his play. Which is why Manny Herrera, the former track coach, laughed when asked whether he’ll be watching Sunday. He said his 86-inch television is plugged in and ready. He knows how the next part of this story usually goes.
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(Top photo: Stephen Maturen / Getty Images)
