Green Bay Packers Cut ‘em or Keep ‘em & Prediction: Dean Lowry

While nothing is set in stone yet, the Green Bay Packers find themselves roughly $20 million over the projected salary cap for the 2021 season, according to Over the Cap. And this $20 million figure doesn’t even take into account the draft class, practice squad, in-season spending, or any potential free-agent additions.

So, needless to say, Brian Gutekunst and Russ Ball have some work to do.

There are a few ways that teams can create additional cap space. They can restructure a contract, similar to what the Packers just did with David Bakhtiari. They can extend a player, and Davante Adams is a prime candidate for this. Or they can release a player.

There are a handful of players on this Green Bay Packers team that could be prime cut candidates in an effort to save salary cap space. So in this new series, I’ll take a look at each potential cap casualty, highlighting why the Packers could keep them, why they might be better off moving on from that player, and a prediction at the end.

Up first is defensive lineman Dean Lowry.

Why the Green Bay Packers could keep Dean Lowry

We see flashes from Dean Lowry, and when he is playing well, it makes things much easier on Kenny Clark. Against Philadelphia, Lowry tallied five pressures, and then a few weeks later against Carolina, he had three more. Not to mention that Lowry was a contributor to a Green Bay Packers’ run defense that performed quite well over the final six weeks of the season, which included containing Derrick Henry for much of the game.

Admittedly, the consistency just isn’t there, but what other options do the Packers have? This is already a very thing interior defensive line group, and without Lowry, it gets even thinner. In addition to Clark and Lowry, the only players under contract for 2021 currently are Kinsley Keke, Willington Previlon, and Anthony Rush.

With the current cap crunch, Green Bay isn’t going to be able to go on a spending spree in free agency. When it comes to the draft, while they should still try to address the position, this isn’t a deep defensive line class, and even if the Packers do draft someone, there is no guarantee that that player is an upgrade and they’ll still be in need of roster depth.

Why the Green Bay Packers could cut Dean Lowry

Lowry was given a contract extension after the 2018 season, but he hasn’t really made the same impact since then. In fact, since the 2018 season, his production has been on a steady decline. He’s gone from creating 29 pressures that year to just 21 this past season and he went from recording 29 stops — or plays that result in a “failure” for the offense — to just 16.

For some context, Lowry posted 19 pressures and 19 stops in 2017 while playing 200 fewer snaps than he did in 2020 when he tallied 21 pressures and 16 stops.

As I mentioned, there are flashes, but the overall consistency just hasn’t been there, and his production has been dropping each season. If the Green Bay Packers were to move on from him, they would create $3.3 million in additional salary cap space.

Prediction

I’ve really gone back and forth on this one, but ultimately, I think they hang on to Lowry. With the interior defensive line unit being as thin as it is, I don’t know that the $3.3 million in savings justifies moving on from him as it creates another hole to fill. At this time, we can’t rely on Green Bay landing an upgrade in free agency or in the draft.

Perhaps if Kingsley Keke continues to improve, he can move into that backup role behind Kenny Clark, and Lowry becomes IDL3, where he could be more impactful in a limited role.

All stats courtesy of Pro Football Focus ($)