Green Bay Packers: Pros & Cons to these 11 Cap Saving Moves

Green Bay Packers Restructure Za’Darius Smith

$7.75 million in cap space saved

Pros: The way a contract restructure works is similar to an extension, except additional years aren’t added on. With a cap hit in 2021 of $22 million, a portion of that would be converted to a signing bonus and spread to the 2022 season, which is the final year of Smith’s deal, thus saving them money in 2021.

Cons: With only one year left on Smith’s current deal, there isn’t exactly much room to spread the signing bonus out. And with a cap hit of $22 million already on the books for 2022, that number will increase, making it more difficult to get out of the deal if that’s what Green Bay wanted to do next offseason. That might sound weird to say, but Smith’s production did dip quite drastically in 2020.

Green Bay Packers Extend Za’Darius Smith

$12.4 million in cap space saved

Pros: Overall, we didn’t see the same consistent impact in 2020 from Za’Darius Smith as we did in 2019, as evidenced by his 59 pressures compared to 105 the previous year. However, he still made plenty of big plays. He finished fifth in the NFL with 12.5 sacks while totaling 38 stops and four forced fumbles. Smith will be 30 when his current contract expires, but between his production and leadership, if anyone has earned an extension, it’s Za’Darius.

Cons: The cons here are similar to what I just mentioned above. While Smith’s production did fall, pressure-wise, I’m also not sure how likely it was going to be that he tallied 105 pressures again–that’s a ridiculous number.

So the same worries with an extension apply to Za’Darius as they do to any other player. Will he be able to keep playing at a high-level during the additional years of the contract? And, of course, this takes away some flexibility in future years by putting more money on the books.

Green Bay Packers Cut Christian Kirksey

$5.6 million in cap space saved

Pros: The inside linebacker position is one that the Green Bay Packers don’t typically value. And while they would need to add someone new to the mix via the draft, with the emergence of Krys Barnes and the flashes from Kamal Martin, the Packers could be quite comfortable taking the savings from cutting Kirksey and paying a fifth-round and UDFA salaries at the position in 2021.

Cons: In Week 15 against Carolina, the Packers made a change moving Barnes to the Mike linebacker and Kirksey to the Will. And this is a move that both players benefited from. In fact, Kirksey was the team’s highest-graded defender by Pro Football Focus ($) in the NFC Championship Game. Perhaps in that role for a full season, we would see a much more productive Kirksey.