The beauty of a chain of command is that sometimes it actually works.

After the Packers traded away Ty Montgomery and Ha Ha Clinton-Dix, a few narratives took off.

The first asked whether or not the Packers would miss Clinton-Dix. The former Pro Bowl safety was one of the few experienced safeties on the team, and for all his faults, the coaches could at least count on him to be in the right spot.

The second narrative was one of exodus: finally unburdened of the running back triumvirate, Mike McCarthy would be forced to divide the running back reps between two players, not three.

In each scenario, it looks like Brian Gutekunst trusted his personnel – and its corresponding depth – more so than the coaching staff.

The Aaron Jones effect

The momentum had already been heading that direction, but even against the Rams McCarthy had been reticent to ride his second-year superstar, instead insisting on a drive-by-drive rotation which inadvertently strips away the concept of momentum.

With Ty Montgomery out of the picture, it was Aaron Jones’ time to take the bulk of the reps at running back. And did he ever: Jones carried the ball 15 times for 145 yards and two touchdowns, including a 67-scamper. He also corralled three of five targets for 27 yards.

Right guard Byron Bell summarized it plainly: “I played with DeAngelo Williams, I played with (Jonathan) Stewart, I played with Zeke (Ezekiel Elliot), I played with DeMarco Murray. Out of all those running backs, him and Zeke—no disrespect to none of the other guys because those are some great backs I played with, too—but him and Zeke Elliot are probably the two best backs I’ve ever seen with patience to just hit it, you know? Thirty-three is going to be a great back in this league for a long, long time.”

Jones is the real deal, and having a blue-chip workhorse in the final seven games will be key in righting the Packers’ ship.

Aaron Rodgers clearly isn’t right, and it’s difficult to figure out why. He’s missing passes he usually makes, and he’s not seeing the field as well he can. Despite a clean game again Sunday, Rodgers left a few too many plays on the field.

Life is easier with the offense operating with Aaron Jones, however. The margin for error for this unit when Rodgers isn’t clicking is too tiny, evidenced by weekly sloppy, inconsistent play.

A dangerous running threat solves a few problems. The first is that it forces defensive coordinators to make decisions. They can load the box and stop the run, but that implies they’re no longer afraid of Rodgers. Or, they keep the boxes light, make passing difficult, and let the Packers advance the football via the running game.

If and when Rodgers gets hot, coupled with a No. 1 receiver in Davante Adams, a vertical threat (but not one-dimensional) in Marquez Valdes-Scantling, a big-bodied security blanket in Jimmy Graham, and a homerun hitter in Aaron Jones, the Packers can make a lot of noise. They’re close.

Josh Jones quietly reaffirms Gutekunst’s decision

Safety Josh Jones didn’t do anything that said “look at me” on Sunday. But that’s good: after a tumultuous rookie season where he frequently struggled to stick on his assignments or to communicate traveling receivers, Jones has, in the past two weeks, done his job.

It’s no secret No. 27 is an athletic outlier: he’s built like a small linebacker but moves like a fast safety and has the straight-line speed of a corner.

In moving on from Ha Ha Clinton-Dix, the theory was that it could result in an “addition by subtraction” situation. Let’s do the math.

The Packers get a fourth-round, controlled pick from the Washington Redskins for a player whom the Packers had no interest in bringing back.

In return, the Packers get a faster free safety (Tramon Williams) and a more physical strong safety (Josh Jones) who also fills in the hybrid linebacker role Jermaine Whitehead once filled before Gutekunst cut him.

Yes, the level of competition and sample size should be taken into consideration, but the early results are encouraging: this Packers defense is making plays, they’re playing physical, they’re gang tackling, and the coverage is lightyears ahead of what it was last year.

On Sunday, Jones appeared physical and assignment sound. He was engaged and did not appear to have any misreads, or if he did none that were fatal. If Jones truly has been struggling to conquer the playbook and the cognitive nuances built into said playbook, then kudos to Mike Pettine for establishing a game plan to maximize Jones’ talents. As a former teacher himself, Pettine surely knows how to both motivate and to scaffold his assignments.

It took Morgan Burnett several years before he mastered Capers’ playbook, but it’s incumbent upon the coaching staff to get some juice out of a contract before it reaches its latter stages where tough decisions with long-term ramifications need to be made.

It is worth wondering if having Tramon Williams direct traffic on the back end has helped Jones and, in general, the defense. Clinton-Dix wore the communication helmet one game before he was forced to relinquish the duty to Blake Martinez. The degree to which Clinton-Dix could direct traffic on the back end apart from his own responsibilities is unknown – and something on which we’ll never receive a direct answer – but Clinton-Dix’s absence and its effect on the defense will be worth tracking through the final seven games.

Though the release of Whitehead was and is somewhat quizzical, Gutekunst needed to move on from Clinton-Dix and Montgomery because, for whatever reason, the coaching staff would not. In his first full season, the new Packers’ GM seems to have an excellent grip on what this roster is and what it is not. He’s not afraid to force the coaching staff’s hand, and so far his conviction is working.