In a widely expected move, the Packers made a move today to free up another $3.75 million in cap space and remove yet another painful reminder of their failure in Seattle.
After Monday’s release of Brandon Bostick, he of the now infamous “onside kick failure seen ’round the world,” Brad Jones, the specific target of the Seahawks’ successful fake field goal, was shown the door today.
While neither player was released solely for those egregious errors, it’s reasonable to think the Packers wish to enforce a culture of accountability among their players.
In Jones’ case, he has been an underperformer for the last two seasons, after first showing some promise with the move to ILB in 2013. Jones however, displayed a propensity for missed tackles and even worse, taking bad penalties to nullify big stops by the Packers’ defense.
After starting game one this year and then suffering a hamstring injury, Jones never made it back into the regular lineup, relegated to the dime package and working on special teams. Some awful penalties late in the season saw him relegated to special teams only for the NFC Championship game.
Jones had been with the Packers for 6 seasons, drafted out of Colorado where he played defensive end and was converted to a OLB by the Packers. He played in 76 regular-season games with 36 starts and seven playogg games with five starts in six seasons. In six seasons, he recorded 293 tackles and 10 sacks.
Special teams have been a sore point for a few years with the Packers. These moves and the firing of Shawn Slocum surely signal there is a new ST Sheriff in town, and his name is Mike McCarthy.
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Jersey Al Bracco is the founder and editor of AllGreenBayPackers.com, and the co-founder of Packers Talk Radio Network. He can be heard as one of the Co-Hosts on Cheesehead Radio and is the Green Bay Packers Draft Analyst for Drafttek.com.
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Not all too surprising. I think what will be more interesting is what they do with Hawk now; I’m guessing Hawk stays on the team through the preseason at this point, considering they have really no depth at ILB and its possible that Thompson skips ILB in the draft (he’s done it before). Add to that Hawk likely will be asked to take another pay cut (and probably accept) and it might be a while before fans get both of their wishes.
I just read in one comment on the Packers.com that A. J. Hawk had surgery to remove bone spurs from his ankle the day after the season. Maybe that was the reason for his so weak 2014 season performance… Also, I remember, Aaron was telling that A. J,. Hawk is injured!
EDIT: http://profootballtalk.nbcsports.com/2015/02/20/a-j-hawk-had-surgery-to-remove-bone-spurs-in-ankle/
AJ has sucked for 4 years – bone spurs or not. He just didn’t have the strength and speed to hack it anymore.
I’m sure Brad Jones gave the best from himself playing for Packers. That might be insufficient, but still it was honest effort. Thank you Bead for all you gave to the team. Wish you all the best!
We all knew this was coming, but it is a huge relief none the less.
Hawk is gone too. If anything, you keep Brad Jones over Hawk….. Jones could run, sort of cover, and take on a blocker. That’s 3 things he could do that Hawk can’t.
Yep. AJ would be a complete waste of roster & cap space. The guy just doesn’t have it anymore.
What concerns me is that the coaching staff is going to use the surgically removed bone spurs in his ankle to justify keeping him around one more year. (Per JSO today). But AJ hasn’t been “good” since 2008. (he’s never been a good fit in the 34) and he’s not been “average” since 2011.
One thing you can’t deny – if both Brad and AJ are gone, GB needs either a FA and a high draft pick at ILB OR two draft picks. The numbers just aren’t there otherwise. What if we went into the year with Barrington, draft pick X and Bradford only and then Barrington got hurt? We’d be in trouble just like we were this year.
What I liked about what TT/MM did about the safety problem last year is that they moved Hyde to safety (at least in the offseason) and THEN drafted HHCD to make SURE they were covered.
They need to do the same thing again with ILB, and everyone in the NFL knows it.
Sign Bruce Carter, the FA from the Cowboys. He’s best as a ILB in a 3-4 defense and would cost a little more than half of what Hawk and Jones cost them. Since the Girls play a 4-3 now I’d think they’ll try and keep McClain. Sign Carter, and draft the BPA. If that’s another ILB so be it. It’s not like they have a abundance of them anyways. Still love the idea of Funchess in this offense, after the combine this morning even more! Go get em Ted!
I hope they let go of Hawk along with Jones. Hawk was a steady player and all, but this team really needs to upgrade their speed and athleticism at ILB. If you want to stay competitive in this league, you have to know when to cut bait and move on…
I’ve wanted this guy fired for two years. About f*^((&** time. I kept saying “Get this guy off the field before he hurts us” Well, he did. And in other news, the sun rises in the East.
I absolutely do not understand what the coaching staff ever saw in this stiff.
Utterly predictable. He’s been a dumpster fire for the past 2 years. Now… I wonder if they’ll cut AJ? The news on JSonline today about how he had an ankle injury has me worried. You’ve got to wonder if he’ll be let go now….. Plus, with Jones gone that leaves Barrington, the unproven Bradford and AJ. Not much there.
Rolando McClain. Paging Rolando McClain. And a high draft pick. THEN dump Hawk.
Agreed. They need to dump Hawk, sign a veteran FA (I prefer Bruce Carter) and draft an ILB early. I like Paul Dawson in the first.
Ding, ding, ding we have a winner. Sorry but just said the same thing about Carter before I saw your post. Bearmeat is right though, it’s worrisome they could actually keep Hawk. God not another year of him, PLEASE!
AJ Hawk has a workout bonus of $250K and an 800K roster bonus. Not sure when the roster bonus is earned (GB often prorates them over the regular season, but sometimes they’re earned on the 3rd day of the new league year). The workout bonus is usually earned in April, which is before the draft. The 250K might be deemed small change, but the Roster bonus is real money. Look for something (it could easily be a contract renegotiation) sooner rather than later.
Good move. Hopefully TT learns by this mistake he made. He could have gotten a serviceable to good ILB, in free agency, for the money he paid Jones. Jones was simply a waste of money
I agree it was a good move, but there wasn’t much in free agency in 2013. Dannell Ellerbe was the elite ILB, but he left Baltimore for Miami for a reported 5 years, $35 million. No way in heck would TT be willing to pay for that. Karlos Dansby (age 31), Larry Grant (age 28) and Bart Scott (age 33) were the only other realistic options.
No surprise here, he was given starter money and wasn’t starting anymore. To be fair, he achieved far more than most 7th rounders do. I wouldn’t be surprised if LB starved team like the Bears, who just switched to a 3-4, snap him up. The Minnesota Packers could too (yeah, I said Minnesota Packers).
NFL notified teams on Feb. 18 that the cap will be between 140-143 million. If you assume it’ll be $141.8 million, then with cutting Brad Jones, the Packers will have $32.05 million in cap space.
2014 Salary Cap: $133 million
2015 Salary Cap: Assume $141.8 million (NFL notified teams 2/18/2015 it
will be $140-143M)
Cap Space as of December: $8.2 million (can be rolled over, so add the $8.2M onto the 141.8M)
Packers’ 2015 Salary Cap: $150 million
Current Commitments: $121.1 million
Dead Money: $0.6 million
Total Commitments: $121.7 million
Projected Cap Space: $28.30 million (150 – 121.71)
Cap Space with Brad Jones cut: $32.05 million (28.3 + 3.75)
Rookie Class: $2 million (2014’s cost was $1.9 million)
Cap Space after rookies signed: $30.05 million
Another in a series of good and necessary moves to get the Packers past 2014. I once had some hope for Brad Jones but over the last 2 seasons he has convinced me and everyone else that he can’t get the job done. He was given a great chance and he did not step up, in fact, as mentioned he hurt the team with his bad penalties. Now comes what about AJ Hawk. He should be convinced to retire. Bone spurs or not the game has passed him by. If he does retire that would leave the Packers with Barrington, Lattimore and Bradford at ILB. Possibly Malumba could join the ILB core and CM3 could still play inside part time. ILB looks like where we were with the Safety position at the end of 2013 so we should expect TT to be looking for an ILB early in the draft and hopefully sign 1 or 2 FAs if available. ILB is now the weakest position on the team and must be addressed. Draft priorities look like, ILB, DL and TE. After that CB, OL, RB and QB for depth. Thanks, Since ’61
Agree 100%. ILB is now the #1 need, it’s just a question of who will be available come draft time. If Bradford doesn’t show progress at training camp this year, he might get the boot too. I really hope the Packers don’t waste a draft pick on a QB. They could spend a late round pick on a more important need like CB, TE or OL.
Rossonero – Agree on the late round picks but I included a QB because I think that Packers are going to move on from Flynn, make Tolzien #2 and therefore they will need a #3 QB. I am confident that they don’t want a repeat of 2013 at the QB position. Thanks, Since ’61
Since ’61 – fair enough. I could absolutely see them letting Flynn go and taking a QB at the end of the draft.
It’s time for Ted to go find some ILB help. Brad Jones will not be missed. N
It should be remembered that Brad Jones received a humanitarian award from the NFL last year. Apparently a good and intelligent man, unfortunately that translate into football smarts.
*did not*
The Doctor said that AJ Hawk will run a 4.4 40yd after the ankle spurs and hemorrhoids are removed. He is staying people…
That actually made me laugh, at least until you suggested he’s staying.
It’s definitely time to make this move. I don’t think he was as bad as many pretend, but he could never stay healthy. While certainly not a pro bowler, he had a good 2012 season and continued that play for the first few games in 2013 before the hamstring injury in the Wk 5 Detroit game derailed things. I don’t think he’s been the same since. Every time he’d string together some halfway decent games, he’d go down again (ankle vs. Atlanta, then quad vs. Oakland in 2014). Now that he’s developed a penchant for dumb penalties, I think he’s exhausted all his chances. Only 1 mil of dead money, so goodbye.
I have said for the past 2 years that Hawk was too slow and missed some tackles that should have been made.I’m also a Buckeye fan and I hate to see him go but everyone has their time.
Glad to see Jones out of GB. The situation with Hawk is a little different in that he’s a player TT wanted, then drafted. Given Hawk’s tenure in GB and the loyalty shown to him by the team, I expect we’ll hear of Hawk’s retirement before we hear about the Packers releasing him.
I typically try to consider how difficult it must be to play professional football and have people scrutinize your every action before I say something negative about a person but if Jason Wilde thinks you’re a smug, condescending d-bag, then I’m inclined to trust his opinion. Good riddance Brad Jones.
That picture up there says it all. It’s as if Jones is saying “How did he get behind me???” LOL