Green Bay Packers running back Aaron Jones rushed 19 times for 125 yards and a touchdown on Sunday in his first "featured" opportunity as starter Ty Montgomery rested his broken ribs.
The beauty of emerging from an uncertain, log-jammed depth chart? Defenses don't know your tendencies. They underestimate. They rely on limited information.
The drawback? You may fade right back into that uncertain, log-jammed depth chart once the starter is healthy again.
"I have no clue," Jones said when asked about his role moving forward, via The Journal-Sentinel. "I just go out every day as if I'm the third back, prepare like that and just work hard."
Once Montgomery is healthy, he'll return to the Packers backfield. Montgomery has been a perfect safety valve in this offense, with at least four catches in his first three games, and a high of eight catches in his last full game against the Bengals. Perhaps Jones' emergence could signal a return to a similar dynamic the Packers had with Eddie Lacy and James Starks.
Journal-Sentinel beat writer Tom Silverstein seemed to go a step further, noting that Jones should keep his share of carries this weekend against the Vikings. He added an interesting nugget from last weekend's win over the Cowboys: * "The difference between Jones and Montgomery and rookie Jamaal Williams appears obvious. Jones can beat defenders to the edge on outside runs and make jump cuts when the defense over-pursues and leaves a cutback lane."*
Lacy was the last pure running back the Packers had in their system and, when he was healthy and rolling, the pressure taken off Aaron Rodgers led to some pretty astronomical passing numbers (38 touchdowns and five interceptions in 2014 when Lacy had 1,139 yards and nine scores). It's too simplistic to say that A plus B equals C and Jones will lead to similar success for Rodgers, but if the Packers can break big runs off certain advantageous fronts that they were not able to before, we won't see Jones disappear anytime soon.
