The Green Bay Packers were very happy to come away from their matchup against the Chicago Bears in Week 1 with a 38-20 victory. Alas, the win did come at a cost, as running back Aaron Jones injured his hamstring in the third quarter.
On a 35-yard catch and run for a touchdown, Jones grabbed for his hamstring as he was crossing the goal line for a score. It didn’t look to be too damaging of an injury as Jones did walk back to the sidelines under his own power.
Once there, he looked to be in good spirits. While getting stretched out, he was making hand gestures and smiling at the sky cam as he was being stretched out. He described it as more of a bite than a pull, proclaiming his left hamstring felt great post-game.
Unfortunately, he did not return to the game after that. Part of it could have certainly been the circumstance as the Packers were opening up a multiple-touchdown lead on the Bears. Head coach Matt LaFleur did offer what would be considered an encouraging update on the star running back Monday afternoon.
“We’re still kind of going through that right now,” LaFleur said shortly after 3 p.m. CT Monday. “I can tell you the encouraging thing was that he was able to jog off the field and we were in a situation where we didn’t need to put him back in the game.”
But, as Green Bay knows all too well, hamstring injuries are finicky. Wide receiver Christian Watson is dealing with a hamstring injury that kept him out of the game. Fellow wide receiver Romeo Doubs was a bit limited in the game as he was dealing with a hamstring injury during the week as well.
The team is certainly going to keep an eye on Jones and it would not be surprising if he is limited or even absent from practice to start the week. There is no reason to push him this early on, especially as a veteran who likely won’t need many practice reps to be ready to go Sunday afternoon.
Jones had only 11 touches against the Bears but he made the most of them. He racked up 127 total yards and two touchdowns, an impressive performance since he didn’t play the final quarter and a half of the game.
