The Green Bay Packers are $50 million over the salary cap projection for 2022, according to Over The Cap. That’s with 54 players under contract and before potentially extending or tagging Davante Adams, signing any free agents or draft picks, besides leaving some financial room to operate during the 2022 season. Therefore, it’s safe to assume the Packers will need to open at least $80 million in the next couple of months – the new league year starts on March 16.
But there’s a clear path for the Packers if they want to go all-in next season and keep Aaron Rodgers and most of their stars. They can open up to $90 million without cutting any player. That would be more than enough for Green Bay to tag Adams and then extend him to free up some more cap space to operate during the regular season.
The Packers have flexibility because they have the sixth-most cap space in 2023, $118.1 million. Only the Las Vegas Raiders, Pittsburgh Steelers, Arizona Cardinals, Jacksonville Jaguars, and Houston Texans have more.
Another disclaimer: It’s evident the Packers will cut some players, but here is a hypothetical scenario to show what they can do with each contract.
Extensions
The first and biggest extension would be with Aaron Rodgers. Considering his current cap number is $46.6 million, and it’s his last season under contract with the Packers, it’s almost a guarantee that he’ll need a new deal to come back. Even if they reach a top-of-market deal, the Packers should be able to open $12 million in cap space. If it’s a little bit lower and with a team-friendly structure, the savings might go up to $20 million, leaving his cap hit at $26 million.
Jaire Alexander is also due for an extension. He is owed $13.3 million on his fifth-year option. If the Packers sign him to a backloaded deal, the cap figure could go down to something like $7.3 million, a $5 million reduction.
The Packers could also give Kevin King a small extension. They wouldn’t be doing it because he’s an essential part of the defense. Instead, an extension for the minimum would allow the Packers to keep the pro-rated void years applied last offseason at a number that’s $1.5 million lower. If he doesn’t re-sign, all pro-rated money will accelerate and hit the 2022 salary cap.
Pay cut
Randall Cobb‘s contract projects a $9.6 million cap hit in 2022, but there’s no way the Packers would pay that much. And considering his production over the last few years, no other team would pay it, either. So if Cobb wants to keep playing with his close friend Aaron Rodgers, he will have to accept a pay cut. If his base salary goes down to the vet minimum, it would be a $6.6 million savings for the Packers.
Restructures
With Rodgers, King, and Alexander extensions, plus Cobb’s pay cut, the Packers would already save $33 million in 2022. The other $57 million would come in the form of restructures. In these cases, the team pays the same amount of money to the player, but it’s aligned in a way that the cap hit is spread over the following years.
For the sake of this argument, the Packers would use a lot of void years, a tool to include “fake years”’ to a deal to spread the cap hit over five years, even if it’s a shorter contract. It’s a common strategy around the NFL, and it has become a trend over the last two seasons because of the cap decline.
Here are some projections of how much the Packers can save if they restructure those deals and add void years:
- DT Kenny Clark $11.16 million (roster bonus and base salary to signing bonus)
- OLB Za’Darius Smith $10.6 million (base salary to signing bonus)
- OT David Bakhtiari $9.6 million (roster bonus and base salary to signing bonus)
- OLB Preston Smith $8.5 million (roster bonus and base salary to signing bonus)
- S Adrian Amos $4.9 million (roster bonus and base salary to signing bonus)
- OT Billy Turner $3.4 million (base salary to signing bonus)
- DE Dean Lowry $3.36 million (roster bonus and base salary to signing bonus)
- RB Aaron Jones $3.32 million (roster bonus to signing bonus)
- K Mason Crosby $1.7 million (roster bonus, workout bonus, and base salary to signing bonus)
- TE Marcedes Lewis $0.5 million (roster bonus to signing bonus)
Total in cap space freed up: $90.14 million
