PRESERVING THAT INSTITUTIONAL MEMORY.

James Jones, who has a Super Bowl ring with the Green Bay Packers as well as noncontiguous years on the team, has a business perspective on the current contract dispute, if that's what it is, between the team and disgruntled quarterback Aaron Rodgers.

The team’s focus on patiently developing offensive contributors rather than acquiring big names through free agency is something that Jones believes Rodgers understands and respects, and that it is not his issue. Rather, Jones sees Rodgers taking the following viewpoint: “I can’t control who you bring in in free agency, but what I do want a little input on is the guys you’re letting out of here.”

Football teams operate under a strange sort of payroll budget constraint called a salary cap, which means that the economy measure teams take is hiving off more expensive players where they can, rather than attempting to compete with a smaller squad. It's a variation on downsizing, all the same, and shedding experience means shedding institutional memory.

Mr Jones remains optimistic about the Packers and their quarterback finding a Pareto improvement.

Jones does believe that the two sides will find a way to work out their differences. A primary reason for this is Jones’ suggestion that Rodgers wants to work out the issues and return for 2021, a position that few others have taken.

“He’s willing to go in there and make sure they can get this thing right and get it fixable and go out there and put the best football team on the field and try to compete for a championship. And that’s why I truly believe that he will be there for training camp, this will get fixed, and I think the relationship will get much better between him and the GM.”

Formal training camps open on July 27.