Green Bay Packers: Pros & Cons to these 11 Cap Saving Moves
By Paul Bretl
This offseason is going to be unlike any other for most NFL teams, including the Green Bay Packers. With no fans in the stands — or very few — this past season due to COVID-19, the salary cap is going to drop from $198.2 million down to around the $180 million mark, according to Adam Schefter.
For the Green Bay Packers, this means that they are roughly $28.2 million over the salary cap entering the 2021 season, according to Over the Cap. As a result, Brian Gutekunst and Russ Ball are going to have to make some difficult decisions this offseason — well, not all are difficult — as they try to get under the $180 million salary cap while still fielding a Super Bowl worthy team.
To help us get a better understanding of what moves can be made and how much money the Packers can save by making them, our friends at Over the Cap recently published a master list for every team, showing what a contract extension, restructure, or flat out cutting a player will do to the salary cap.
Using this information, I counted 11 potential cap saving moves that the Green Bay Packers can make this offseason and weighed the pros and cons of each decision. Now, not all of these moves are going to be made to free up cap space, but I imagine at least a few will.
Green Bay Packers Extend Davante Adams
$9.34 million in cap space saved
Pros: Davante Adams is in the final year of his current deal and is set to come with a cap hit in 2021 of $16.78 million if nothing is done. By extending his contract, the Packers can convert a portion of his salary in 2021 to a signing bonus and spread that cap hit out over the life on the contract.
Adams is coming off a monster season with 1,374 receiving yards, a catch rate of 77.2 percent, and 18 touchdowns while only playing in 14 games.
Cons: There is none. Extend the man.
Green Bay Packers Cut Preston Smith
$8 million in cap space is saved
Pros: Smith comes with a hefty cap hit in 2021 of $16 million, and while he may have lived up to that pay-day in 2019, he didn’t last season. After totaling 12 sacks and 62 pressures in 2019, those numbers plummeted to just four sacks and 29 pressures. In terms of production, he was edge-rusher No. 3 behind Za’Darius Smith and Rashan Gary.
Cons: Without Smith, the edge-rusher position is a need that the Green Bay Packers should address fairly early on in the draft. However, with the cap hit that he carries in 2021, Gutey cannot justify keeping him.