Green Bay Packers: 4 Important Offseason Notes from Wednesday

Even with free agency and the new league year less than a week away, there were still a lot of unknowns for the Green Bay Packers as well as around the NFL. But now we have more clarity.

The biggest and most important news to drop on Wednesday was the salary cap figure, but there were several other noteworthy items as well pertaining to the Packers. Here is what you may have missed.

Salary cap set at $182.5 million

This remained a mystery for quite some time. We knew the floor was $180 million, but there were rumors, or maybe just hopeful wishing, that it could reach $185 million or even $190 million.

But instead, it comes in at $182.5 million, just above the floor and down from the $198.2 million that it was at in 2020. So what does this mean for the Green Bay Packers?

Well, it’s not amazing news by any means, but in this salary cap crunch that we find ourselves in, every little bit helps. Instead of being $11.5 million over what was the projected salary cap, Green Bay is now $9.6 million over, according to Over the Cap.

From a salary cap standpoint, there is still work to be done as the Packers have to be under the cap by next Wednesday afternoon when free agency opens. Some potential moves include extensions for Davante Adams or Za’Darius Smith. Restructuring Aaron Rodgers’ contact, either cutting or having Preston Smith take a pay cut, as well as cutting Dean Lowry.

Is a Za’Darius Smith extension in the works?

Those final sentences are a good segue into our next newsworthy item—and that has us wondering if an extension for Za’Darius Smith is in the works.

If you missed it, Smith tweeted out: “I want to be a Packer for life!!” Whether or not that could mean an extension is coming is up to each individual to decide how much they want to read into this. But from a cap-saving standpoint, it does make a lot of sense.

The 28-year-old Smith has been very good on the football field since coming to Green Bay—being named an All-Pro this past year, leading the league in pressures in 2019, and totaling 26 sacks over two years. Not to mention that he’s a leader both on and off the field as well.

But his cap hit in 2021 of $22 million is hefty—especially in a year where the salary cap is dropping almost $16 million. An extension would be a way to shift some of that cap hit to future years while also keeping one of the league’s most productive edge rushers in Green Bay beyond 2022.

Green Bay Packers land 3 compensatory draft picks

Compensatory picks for the 2021 NFL draft were handed out yesterday, and the Green Bay Packers received three of them.

They will be receiving pick 143 in the fourth round for losing Blake Martinez last offseason. Along with pick 178 in Round 5 and pick 220 in Round 6 for losing Bryan Bulaga and Kyler Fackrell, respectively. This now gives Green Bay 10 total selections.

To put it simply, if an NFL team loses more compensatory free agents than they sign, they will be awarded the difference of those two figures in draft picks the following year. The Packers lost Martinez, Fackrell, Bulaga, and BJ Goodson in free agency last offseason but gained Devin Funchess—who essentially canceled out the loss of Goodson by the compensatory formula.

Factors such as the contract received in free agency, performance, and time accrued in the NFL determines which picks the team receives.

5th-year option dollar amounts are announced

First-round picks in the NFL draft come with four-year rookie deals — just like every other draft pick — but also included is a fifth-year option. For the 2018 draft class, teams have to decide whether to apply those fifth-year options to their first-round draft picks for the 2022 season by May 3rd.

For the Green Bay Packers, that player is Jaire Alexander. There’s never been a question on whether or not they were going to exercise that fifth-year option — of course, they’re going to — but now we know that dollar figure. And it isn’t cheap.

Alexander’s fifth-year option for 2022 will cost the Green Bay Packers $13.29 million that season. Another big contract that the team will have to fit into their future salary cap.

If they want to avoid that hefty cap hit next season, an extension is in play. However, I wouldn’t expect that to take place this offseason—there just isn’t that much cap space to be gained in 2021. But next offseason, it will be an option.