Green Bay Packers: Salary Cap Update Heading into Camp

The Green Bay Packers’ 2020 rookie class is signed, so here is where they stand salary cap-wise heading into training camp.

Compared to the 2019 offseason, 2020 was much quieter for the Green Bay Packers. However, back in January, GM Brian Gutekunst told us it was going to be this way.

After spending $182 million in contracts to land Za’Darius Smith, Preston Smith, Adrian Amos, and Billy Turner a year ago, while also taking into account that the Packers have five high-profile free agents of their own to deal with in 2021, they just didn’t have much spending power this year.

As a result, the free-agent additions that they did make were of the bargain variety, as they added several veterans who have had a recent injury history, a dip in their play, or both.

Now with Green Bay’s entire 2020 draft class signed and on the books as well as training camp about to begin, let’s take a look at where their salary cap stands.

At the moment, Spotrac has the Green Bay Packers with $11,531,409 in available cap space. Unfortunately, not all of that will be spendable. This only takes into account the top-51 players on the roster, so there are still two players unaccounted for. On top of that, there is the practice squad and cash needed for any in-season spending. Last year we saw Green Bay sign Jared Veldheer and Tyler Ervin mid-season, both of which came up big when called upon.

And considering that Kenny Clark, David Bakhtiari, Aaron Jones, Kevin King, and Corey Linsley are all free agents next offseason, rolling over as much unused cap to 2021 should be a priority.

So with those additional costs factored in, Packers’ salary cap aficionado, Ken Ingalls, has Green Bay with $8,680,774 in unallocated cap space. Ken also mentions that he doesn’t expect the Packers to make any significant additions given their cap situation. And given everything that we’ve already discussed, I agree.

However, there is enough wiggle room that a veteran on a one-year, $1 million to $3 million deal isn’t going to ruin the Packers’ cap situation. A few players that I have in mind are Tramon Williams, who is coming off an excellent 2019 season in Green Bay. Jared Veldheer, who would provide some much-needed depth at the tackle position. Along with Snacks Harrison or Timmy Jernigan to help give this run defense a boost.

Whether or not one of those moves is made remains to be seen, and my guess is that Green Bay wants to see how training camp plays out before making that decision. But what we do know right now and what we’ve known all along is that the Packers are low on cap space and they are going to be low on cap space next offseason as well.