Green Bay Packers are making salary cap a major 2022 issue
The Green Bay Packers and general manager Brian Gutekunst have been busy bees this offseason, as they’ve had a lot of work to do to get under the depressed 2021 salary cap. They had to cut around $20 million off their upcoming bill before Wednesday’s free agency period officially started. Consider their mission successful.
The Packers have had to work with a number of players to create enough flexibility to get under the cap (and re-sign stud running back Aaron Jones). Here are the moves they’ve made so far:
- Restructured David Bakhtiari’s new deal and saved $8.3 million this year
- Release Christian Kirksey and Rick Wagner to save $8.5 million
- Reduce Devin Funchess’s salary to save $750,000
- Restructured Adrian Amos to save $750,000
- Pay cut for Preston Smith to save $7.3 million this year
- Restructure Billy Turner to save $3.6 million this year
- Restructure Za’Darius Smith to save $7.38 million this year
Gutekunst’s work for Green Bay might not be done, as there are still a number of moves they could make to create extra cap space and become players in free agency. Those moves include releasing Dean Lowry, restructuring Aaron Rodgers’ contract and extending Davante Adams.
The Green Bay Packers have had to do a number of gymnastics to get under this year’s salary cap only to make it a huge 2022 issue.
This all sounds fine and dandy for 2021, as Green Bay did what they had to do in order to meet league requirements before the official start of free agency. Unfortunately, and contrary to some beliefs, the salary cap is very real and they just made life a living H-E-Double hockey sticks for the next offseason.
According to Ken Ingalls, a bonafide cap guru on Twitter, Green Bay has pushed an extra $15 million into 2022. Furthermore, he projects the Packers are going to be a whopping $45 million over next year’s cap! That is a major issue that Green Bay will have to solve eventually. Could moving on from Aaron Rodgers that soon be in the cards? I kid, I kid.
Next. Ranking Packers' needs at start of free agency. dark
However, it appears they are perfectly fine with worrying about it when the time comes and solely focusing on bringing the Lombardi Trophy home. And that true win-now mode is what fans have been asking for. Let’s hope it pays off because it appears there are dark, dark days in the near future.