Green Bay Packers & Za’Darius Smith will Complete Extension Following Aaron Jones Deal
By Paul Bretl
News just broke that the Green Bay Packers and Aaron Jones agreed to a four-year deal worth $48 million and $13 million guaranteed. However, as we all know, the Green Bay Packers don’t have the cap space at the moment to complete that move, so a corresponding move or two is set to follow.
And according to Tom Silverstein of the Green Bay Press-Gazette, an extension for Za’Darius Smith is currently in the works to free up additional cap space in 2021 for Jones.
In order to get RB Aaron Jones' deal done, the #Packers will have to complete an extension with OLB Za'Darius Smith that will greatly lower his salary cap number. Expect that to be completed in the next day or so.
— Tom Silverstein (@TomSilverstein) March 14, 2021
We don’t have the details at this time of what that will look like, but Smith comes with a base salary in 2021 of $10.75 million and a roster bonus of $5 million. Any of that can be converted to a signing bonus and the cap hit saved can be spread out over the life of the deal, which was going to end in 2022 but will now include extra years.
The 28-year-old Smith has been nothing but an excellent free-agent addition since he first set foot in Green Bay. In 2019, he led the NFL in total pressures with a whopping 105 and also added 13.5 sacks—the sixth most in football.
This past season, Smith totaled 12.5 sacks, which was tied for the fourth-most in the NFL, and tallied 59 pressures. Smith was also named to the All-Pro team, an honor he should have also received in 2019.
While Smith’s impact on the field has been impressive, he also means a whole heck of a lot to this team and the city off of it. Smith was a catalyst behind Green Bay’s culture change in 2019 after it had grown stagnant in recent years and quickly became a leader both in the locker room and on the field.
Although this deal will likely take Smith into his 30s, as Ross Uglem of Packer Report mentions, with Smith’s style of play, he is someone who can still be effective at that point in his career even if he’s lost half a step.
Next. Packers and Aaron Jones Agree to 4 Year Deal. dark
At this time, we still don’t know exactly where the Green Bay Packers are standing salary cap-wise, but they’re bringing back an important offensive weapon in Aaron Jones, and keeping Za’Darius Smith in town beyond 2022.