Green Bay Packers: 4 Likely Salary Cap Cuts this Offseason
By Paul Bretl
Green Bay Packers LB: Christian Kirksey
The Green Bay Packers just signed Christian Kirksey this past offseason, and unfortunately, he was again bitten by the injury bug early on. Kirksey missed Weeks 4 through 9, and upon his return, he was up and down with some tough performances mixed in.
However, in Week 15 against Carolina, the Packers made a change moving Krys Barnes to the Mike linebacker role while Kirksey became the Will. And both he and Barnes flourished in their new roles. Over the final five games — including the playoffs — Kirksey had two sacks compared to one in the previous eight games and 10 pressures compared to 11. He also had an interception and allowed only nine yards per catch on seven receptions.
And if grades are your thing, he was actually the Packers’ highest-graded defender in the NFC Championship Game by PFF’s grading system.
Yet even with the strong finish, we saw the emergence this season of the aforementioned Barnes along with Kamal Martin. And considering that linebacker is not a position that the Packers typically value very highly, I imagine that they will be just fine cutting Kirksey and saving over $5.6 million in cap space while Barnes and Martin take over with a combined cap hit in 2021 of just over $1.6 million.