Green Bay Packers: Preston Smith Takes Incentive-Heavy Pay Cut to Create Cap Space

We all know that the Green Bay Packers have to create cap space and be under the $182.5 salary-cap figure by next Wednesday when the new league year begins. However, entering Friday, they were still about $9.6 million over.

There are a number of moves that could be made to create that needed space, but exactly how Green Bay was going to go about it; we didn’t know–especially when it came to Preston Smith.

In 2019, Smith had 12 sacks, the eighth-most in football, and 62 pressures, the 15th most among edge rushers. But this past season, he took a big step back. His sack total fell to four, and his pressures to only 29.

Keeping Smith on his current deal that came with a $16M cap hit seemed out of the question given his production. As did a straight-up contract restructure, which would’ve created cap space in 2021 but added to his already stout $16.5 million cap hit in 2022.

Cutting Smith was seen by many as the most viable option and would’ve created $8 million in cap space. But Brian Gutekunst and Russ Ball went a different route, as Smith has taken an incentive-laden pay cut that clears quite a bit of cap space.

According to Ian Rapoport, Smith’s reworked deal has a salary of $8 million and the potential to earn $4.4 million in incentives. Below is a breakdown of how Smith can earn some money back.

To simplify what this all exactly means for the Green Bay Packers salary cap, salary cap aficionado Ken Ingalls has Smith with a cap hit of just $8.75 million in 2021, compared to the $16 million it was at previously.

His cap hit in 2022 does jump to $19.75 million; however, Green Bay is still able to get out of the deal with savings in hand if it gets to that point.

Overall this is a really well-done deal for the Green Bay Packers, who now get to keep Preston Smith for the 2021 season while still saving almost the same amount of cap space that they would have had they just flat-out cut him. This is some truly fine work by Brian Gutekunst and Russ Ball.

With Za’Darius Smith coming off an All-Pro season and Rashan Gary ascending, if the Smith can regain some of that form from 2019, this Green Bay Packers’ pass rush is going to be a tough one to stop.

Between Smith’s pay cut and the restructure of Adrian Amos’ deal, the Green Bay Packers are now just $1.27 million over the cap, according to Ingalls.