Just like they did with Derek Sherrod and Nick Perry before him, the Packers will not exercise the option year with Jones, according to a source. Jones, the 26th overall pick in the 2013 draft, would become a free agent after this season.
Jones will make $1,457,264 in salary and bonuses this season, but the fifth-year would have paid him $6.757 million – or about a million less than the entire value of his first four contract years.
Since the advent of the 5th year option, Ted Thompson and the Packers have never utilized the tool that was added to the Collective Bargaining Agreement back in 2011 which allows teams to control an additional year of a player's first contract.