With Jones sidelined or limited by hamstring and knee injuries for most of the season, Green Bay’s offense generally operated in fits and starts. With Jones fresh and healthy for the stretch run, the offense caught fire.

“Amazing,” Jones said of the season. “Honestly, it’s been the best team I’ve been around. Just the way we come together and believe in each other. We care about each other. We’re all brothers, cousins. We’re all like family. We’re all related somehow. It’s truly fun when you know those guys care about you. You can just look on the field and it’s evident we’re playing for each other. That’s why it hurts a little bit more because we were playing for each other.”

With Jones sidelined or limited by hamstring and knee injuries for most of the season, Green Bay’s offense generally operated in fits and starts. With Jones fresh and healthy for the stretch run, the offense caught fire.

“Amazing,” Jones said of the season. “Honestly, it’s been the best team I’ve been around. Just the way we come together and believe in each other. We care about each other. We’re all brothers, cousins. We’re all like family. We’re all related somehow. It’s truly fun when you know those guys care about you. You can just look on the field and it’s evident we’re playing for each other. That’s why it hurts a little bit more because we were playing for each other.”

Given Jones’ dominant performance down the stretch, there’s no why he should not return for another season. He’s due an $11.1 million base salary, which can easily be renegotiated even if he doesn’t take a pay cut.

“I’ve been an underdog my whole life so it’s always fun proving people wrong,” Jones said. “We were really blocking out the outside noise. We didn’t care about what people said. We even had people coming in our own locker room who didn’t believe in us; I’m talking about the media. We just believe in each other. We stick together and we’re all we got and that’s all we need.”

The argument against paying a running back is obvious. Of the 10 highest-paid running backs this season by total contract value, only Jones and San Francisco’s Christian McCaffrey reached the playoffs.