Former Packers wide receiver James Jones became a reporter yesterday, breaking the news his old friend Jordy Nelson had signed a two-year, $15 million deal with the Raiders.
So as a guy in position to know, he also knows that the Packers offered Nelson a severe pay-cut before releasing him earlier this week.
Jones told Tom Silverstein of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel that the Packers insulted Nelson with their offer.
“I’m not going to say what they offered him, but they really, really low-balled him,” Jones said. “It wasn’t even anything you would consider. Even with all that, he was still considering taking it.”
Jones has been there, having been set free by the Packers himself, and he said he knew Nelson was stung personally by the way the deal went down.
The Packers cleared $10.25 million in cap room by releasing Nelson, money they immediately turned into Jimmy Graham and Muhammad Wilkerson, and part of which they’re stashing for the eventual Aaron Rodgers extension.
“He’s given the organization everything he has, at least give him one more season,” Jones said. “It’s not going to hurt the team. He’s going to help you. He could have given you one more year.
“But at the end of the day, it’s a business. You should never be surprised. I’ve seen Peyton Manning and Charles Woodson and so many other people get released.”
While the Packers might have made the offer, their interest in other receivers suggests they simply wanted to move on. In that case, going low wasn’t as much an offer to bring Nelson back, but an attempt to make sure he didn’t.