second-round pick https://www.thepackersfanshop.com/Nick-Perry-Jersey , but likely can’t get much in a trade. We look at what’s likely to happen now and how this relationship turned so sour." />Skip to main contentclockmenumore-arrownoyesHorizontal - WhiteAcme Packing Companya Green Bay Packers communityLog In or Sign UpLog InSign UpFanpostsFanshotsSectionsPackersOddsAboutMastheadCommunity GuidelinesStubHubMoreAll 322 blogs on Horizontal - WhiteFanposts Fanshots Sections The APC PodcastPackers Film RoomFantasy Football AdviceCDTShareTweetShareShareHow did the Packers get to this point with Josh Jones and where do they go from here? Jones Jones fell out of favor with the coaching staff and now wants to be traded. Photo by Dylan Buell/Getty ImagesJosh Jones’ public trade demand Tuesday offers a fitting metaphor for the Green Bay Packers’ safety position for years. Jones represents Ted Thompson’s failures to remedy a gaping hole that has burned deeply into this roster ever since Nick Collins’ early injury-forced retirement. After signing Adrian Amos and trading up for Darnell Savage, at the very least Brian Gutekunst undertook considerable efforts to remake the safety position. Jones, the last vestige of the capital Thompson invested at the position, now wants out. It’s been made clear the Packers aren’t particularly interested in using Jones either, as evidenced in Mike Pettine’s resolve to try nearly every possible player ahead of him last season. Kentrell Brice and Jermaine Whitehead shouldn’t all be playing ahead of your former second-round pick unless the team views him as a lost cause. Perhaps the team will view Jones as they did the remaining staff of Mike McCarthy after Matt LaFleur got the job: salt the earth so that nothing old grows back. Gutekunst would try to trade Jones and if no suitable partner calls, he’s given his walking papers. Under different circumstances, the move from the Packers would have been to say “tough luck, you’re under contract,” with the understanding the market likely won’t produce a wealth of suitors. But this team already tried every excuse it could find not to put him on the field. They didn’t trust him last year and then spent an offseason rebuilding the position he was supposed to be playing but wasn’t. Josh Jones told me last year he never got an explanation for why he wasn’t playing more, but his focus at the time wasn’t the past. He wanted to help the team win. As Kentrell Brice struggled, Jones languished on special teams, but began making plays. He appeared to be playing the role of good soldier. Yet once Brice went down Jermaine Whitehead’s role elevated, not Jones’ and Pettine never found a role for Jones in this defense. Clearly, part of the responsibility to carve out a home for the player falls on the player. Jones never forced his way into more snaps by playing well. His best game has been his first game, where he was all over the field against the Bengals as a rookie back in 2016. But he lacked the instincts to make plays as a box defender, the read-and-react ability to play in the deep half, and while he’s a useful man coverage player, Pettine prizes versatility among all else. Brice or Whitehead were never truly better options than Jones. There could be more to the story here than just on-field struggles, because it’s not like these other players were any better. Brice, for example, gave up three touchdowns in just 29 targets with a passer rating over 150 when quarterbacks tested him. That’s awful. Jones’ 98.7 passer rating when targeted is nothing to write home about, but it was significantly better than Whitehead’s and Brice’s. A quick aside: Ibraheim Campbell, for his part, played extremely well in limited snaps, showing good feel in coverage and immediately becoming the position group’s most reliable tackler. An injury ended his season, but don’t be surprised if the Packers bring him back in 2019 once he’s physically able. However, he played more of a free safety role opposite Jones rather than taking snaps away from him.One of the strangest parts of this saga was how passive Gutekunst was last offseason when Jones was slated to be a major contributor. No draft capital, no free agent moves, and then a reliance on UDFAs and street free agents. If they really believed Jones was borderline unplayable, how could they have gone into the 2018 season believing they were set with a safety they ended up trading and some undrafted guys? That was true at the time and looks even more bizarre given how aggressively this front office went about adding to the position this offseason. Much like in 2018, when the safety market proved to be extremely soft, Jones would be competing for spots with a host of former preferred starters around the league. Eric Berry, Tre Boston, Mike Mitchell, Glover Quin, Darian Stewart, Mike Adams, Ron Parker, Kurt Coleman and others remain on the market. Why would a team give up draft capital for a safety his own team didn’t want to play in favor of simply signing one of these other, more established players? There’s a simple case that Packers should deal Jones for whatever they can get, like some conditional late Day 3 pick, and sign one of these veterans outright with the understanding that Amos and Savage represent the priority starters at the position. What we need Pettine to answer relates to his preferred style of play. Did he play big nickel last year because Antonio Morrison can’t cover and Oren Burks wasn’t ready, or is that simply how Pettine wants to run this defense? His previous experience suggests the latter. In that case, Green Bay without Jones doesn’t have the bodies to play that way unless Tramon Williams slots in as that roving nickel safety role, something he could be well-suited to do considering how well Savage and Amos can play in the box. Those three as interchangeable pieces offer the kind of malleability Pettine prizes. Part of the answer may lie in the aforementioned Burks. When the Packers drafted Josh Jones Davante Adams Jersey , they stated from Day 1he was going to be a box player, the guy competing to be the dime linebacker. Injuries forced him to play more safety, but go back and watch him against Cincinnati in that game where he really shined and you’ll see a player who made all his best plays from the box. Thompson drafted Jones and in Gutekunst’s first draft, he trades up for a player who ostensibly plays the same position, or at least who could do so. The writing may have been on the wall for Jones at the moment Green Bay turned in the card on Burks. Being able to play Burks next to Martinez would allow Pettine to play more traditional nickel, mitigating some of the size issues that prevented the Packers from being a sound run defense last season, as well as disguising more of their looks. Instead of taking Morrison off the field to put a safety on it — in this case a safety they didn’t really want to play regardless of who it was — the Packers could keep Burks on the field and theoretically get the same kind of versatility. Despite the active offseason from Gutekunst, he didn’t add to a thin linebacker core, or bring in a “box” safety, no matter what anyone tells you about Amos. That could signal faith in Oren Burks. Had it not been for the way the team actively subverted Jones’ role during the season, we may have had reason to believe his presence played a role in that calculation. Much more likely, the Packers added to the back end safety rotation to add players who can play the way Pettine prefers, guys who can cover in the deep half or be factors in the run game from the box. Jones struggled in two-deep safety looks and never quite got the hang of inside linebacker play. As a blitzer shooting gaps and in man coverage, he could be useful, but the Packers clearly wanted more. They signed safeties they like and may have already drafted a replacement for the position Jones was meant to play. A trade may truly be best for both sides, even if it’s unlikely the Packers will get useful compensation for him. That said, Green Bay showed it had little intention of actually finding a way to use Jones on the field so forcing him to say feels unduly punitive to the player. Neither side seems to want to be involved with the other. Moving on signals the end of a forgettable era in Packers safety play while allowing Jones to find a new home elsewhere. Week 1 can be a liar. Conference contenders can look discombobulated, while future also-rans fly out of the gate with alacrity. Defenses who will soon tarnish will shine and offenses who inevitably fade, glow red hot. As Aaron Rodgers and the offense struggled against the Bears, the call for play-action grew. First play against the Vikings: Rodgers finds Davante Adams for 39 off a run fake. If Week 1 wasn’t a harbinger of things to come with the Packers offense, the first play of Week 2 was, at least for the rest of the first half. Green Bay marched down the field, punching the ball in the end zone on a screen to Jamaal Williams. It was the best of what Matt LaFleur’s offense can be. Earlier in the drive, they showed a swing pass to Aaron Jones. Off the same look inside the red zone, Rodgers faked the swing, came back to Williams on the screen who powered into the end zone. It the first of three touchdown drives as the Packers took a 21-0 lead as they held on for the 21-16 win. Against the Bears, who consistently threw two and even three defenders at him, Davante Adams managed four catches for 36 yards. The burgeoning superstar hung 87 on five catches on Xavier Rhodes and Co. in the first half alone, ending the game with 106 yards on seven grabs. Aaron Jones, whose first-down production in particular buoyed the Packers, followed a similar path. After getting bottled up by Chicago for 39 yards on 13 carries in Week 1, Jones creased the Vikings for 14 carries for 63 yards and a touchdown through two quarters, finishing with 116 yards on a career-high 23 totes. Most importantly, Rodgers rebounded, carrying a perfect passer rating well into the first half with 151 yards and two touchdowns through two quarters. And it could have been even more. Geronimo Allison fumbled with the Packers pressing into Vikings territory for a score that could have put the game out reach. Green Bay led 21-7 after a 75-yard Dalvin Cook burst, but maintained control of the game at the time. But they are both that team, one capable of lighting up one of the best defenses in football, and the one who sputtered, flubbed, and whiffed most of the second half. That’s the offense we saw in Week 1 without the creativity, the effectiveness, the crisp execution, and mostly importantly, the points. After starting 10-11 for 137 yards and two touchdowns, Rodgers went 8-19 for 72 yards.After the Vikings cut the lead to 14 Josh Jones Color Rush Jersey , Allison failed to pick up the first-down on an option route on third-and-1. A play later, the Vikings stuffed the Packers on fourth down, already in field goal position, robbing Green Bay of at least three points. Green Bay could have realistically hung 30+ on Mike Zimmer’s defense without its third and fourth cornerbacks due to injury. Speaking of defense, Mike Pettine’s group didn’t suffocate Kirk Cousins the same way it did Mitch Trubisky, but the passing attack never really got on track outside of a 61-yarder to the son of former Packers receiver Don Beebe to set up a field goal. That play, a magician act from Cousins to avoid a sack and dump the ball off, preceded a called touchdown to Stefon Diggs, but a booth review determined Cook blocked a Packers defender (actually, it was two) in the end zone, and overturned the score. Green Bay’s defense held to a field goal and took a 21-10 lead into halftime instead of 21-14. The ferocious, disruptive, playmaking group once again showed up, harassing Kirk Cousins, blanketing receivers, and turning the ball over. Kenny Clark whipped the Vikings offensive line up and down the field, including for a first-half strip sack. Darnell Savage forced a fumble and tripped a pass that Preston Smith caught for a pick en route to forcing Cousins into the fewest first-half completions (four) of his career. Not every week will be as dominant as Week 1, but this side of the ball showed what they did against the Bears was not a mirage. No lying eyes from the start of the season; this Green Bay defense is legitimately good. For the second straight week, they saved a critical score with an interception in the end zone, this one from Kevin King after a rough day for him. On the other side of the coin, the Packers protected the ball extremely well against the playmaking Bears defense. Sloppy turnovers kept Minnesota in the game, allowing them to hang around when Green Bay dominated run of play for most of the day. While the Packers defense made life miserable for Cousins, he did burn them for a 45-yard touchdown to close the lead down to one score at 21-16 in the second half, but penalties struck on Minnesotaa week after they shot themselves in the foot constantly with penalties. The unsportsmanlike conduct call on Diggs for taking off his helmet cost them 15 yards on the extra point try that Tony Brown eventually blocked.Play-to-play, the Packers defense executed the gameplan, but some missed tackles and chunk plays gave Minnesota life. Penalties and off-target throws blunted what could have been an even more productive day for the Vikings offense starting in the middle of the second quarter as they started to find a rhythm Those have to get cleaned up moving forward as guys like Kevin King, Savage, Jaire Alexander and this young secondary makes progress together. Likewise, we shouldn’t be surprised the offense slowed down after a blazing start. This is a group in progress with LaFleur adjusting to Rodgers and vice versa. With the running game working, LaFleur’s philosophy should be hitting fifth gear, but instead, the offense bogged down starting with the Allison fumble. When they go play-action, the offense works in harmony, punctuated by the first down the Packers picked up to help salt the game away on a boot to Davante Adams. The run game got going. Adams found his groove. Rodgers looked more comfortable. And Green Bay’s defense showed out, forcing two picks and three fumbles (recovering two). For now, that’s the recipe to win games as the scheme takes root. More pass-catching need to step forward after another forgettable game from Jimmy Graham and Marquez Valdes-Scantling. Trevor Davis never saw the field and Jake Kumerow only found spot duty. They’re still figuring things out, and against a good defense, jumping out to a 21-0 lead points to progress. The offense may be high-variance for a few more weeks, potentially even all season. But with Jones, Adams, and this group of defensive playmakers, they’ve proven through two weeks, they can be whatever they have to be in order to win, even if it’s tough to look at.