Green Bay Packers: 3 Significant Salary Cap Saving Moves Still Available
By Paul Bretl
Green Bay Packers Cap Saving Move: Aaron Rodgers Restructure
A month ago, this seemed like a given, to what extent remained unknown, but it seemed that the Green Bay Packers were in such a big hole with the salary cap that restructuring Aaron Rodgers’ deal was going to happen. Now given where they stand, I don’t see it as a necessity — from a cap standpoint — considering that they are about even with the salary cap and still have other viable moves available.
With that said, I still expect Rodgers’ contract to be restructured, but again, to what extent is the big question.
Rodgers’ cap hit in 2021 is $37.2 million and comes with a $14.7 million base salary along with a $6.8 million roster bonus. Like an extension, those amounts can be converted to a signing bonus and prorated over the remaining years. The difference between an extension and a restructure is that new years aren’t added on to the deal, so any cap space saved in 2021 has to be recognized in 2022 and 2023–the final two years of Rodgers’ deal.
How much of Rodgers’ cap hit that the Green Bay Packers will push into those future years will be telling on how they feel about his future. 2022 presents the first realistic opportunity for the Packers to get out of his deal, and if they forego the restructure or push just a small amount to 2022 and 2023, it perhaps means that they still want to leave the door open and reassess his future next offseason.
On the flip side, the same could be said if they go “all-in” and push his restructure to the max, thus making his already steep dead cap hits — money that stays on the books even if the player is released — of $22.64 million in 2022 and $25.5 million in 2023 even larger. This likely means that Rodgers isn’t going anywhere.
My guess is that a restructure does happen, and it falls somewhere in the middle. As I’ve said before, if Rodgers keeps playing at a high-level, I’m not terribly concerned about his future cap hits–in 2020, he was the league’s best player at the most important position, and I don’t see his play dropping off so substantially this season that a year from now we are wondering if Jordan Love should take over. So I don’t have this concern about needing to get out of his contract in 12 months.
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As far as how much money could be saved, Over the Cap has an Aaron Rodgers’ restructure creating a whopping $14.52 million in cap space if they were to push a large portion of his salary and roster bonus to future years.