Don’t use the term “rebuild” around Green Bay Packers running back Aaron Jones.
The Pro Bowler is confident the Packers have everything they need to win without Aaron Rodgers and several other departed veterans during the 2023 season.
“We’ve got everything we need here. If you think we’re in a rebuild, you’ve got the wrong team, the wrong place,” Jones said Tuesday at OTAs. “We know it’s going to take all 11 and we’ll have to depend on each other in all phases, but we’re hungry, we’re ready to prove a lot of people wrong. We know what people are saying. Everybody has an opinion and most of them stink.”
After finishing 8-9 and missing the playoffs in 2022, the Packers traded Rodgers to the New York Jets and let Allen Lazard, Randall Cobb, Jarran Reed, Dean Lowry and Robert Tonyan depart in free agency, while Mason Crosby, Adrian Amos and Marcedes Lewis remain unsigned and unlikely to return to the Packers.
It’s a new-look team, led by quarterback Jordan Love, but the Packers don’t have to be a rebuilding team in 2023. The NFC North is wide open, the regular season schedule looks manageable, and the talent base in Green Bay remains strong with Jones, left tackle David Bakhtiari, left guard Elgton Jenkins, cornerback Jaire Alexander outside linebackers Rashan Gary and Preston Smith, defensive lineman Kenny Clark, receiver Christian Watson and kick returner Keisean Nixon still on the roster.
Speaking of Nixon, he agrees with Jones.
“Nobody in this locker room thinks of it as a rebuild,” Nixon said Tuesday. “This isn’t a rebuild. We are coming to win now.”
The 2023 season could be one of transition and learning how to win with Love, but rebuild is too strong of a word for Jones, who rushed for a career-high 1,121 yards in 2022, and Nixon, an All-Pro kick returner last season.
It’s worth noting that the Packers finished 6-10 and missed the playoffs in the first year of the Aaron Rodgers era in 2008.
“It’s a fresh start, fresh season,” Jones said.
Jones returned to Green Bay on a restructured deal this offseason. Nixon re-signed on a one-year deal.
