Green Bay Packers Have to Make Decision on Aaron Rodgers’ Roster Bonus

The Green Bay Packers just barely squeaked under the $182.5 million salary-cap figure on Wednesday when the new league year began. However, as I highlighted in a recent article, just because they’re under the cap now doesn’t mean their work is done either.

Other cap hits that will be coming down the pipeline include the incoming draft class, the practice squad, any in-season spending, and of course, they’ll have to make room for any free-agent additions.

The two big moves still on the table for the Green Bay Packers are a Davante Adams extension and the restructuring of Aaron Rodgers’ contract.

The Adams extension seems inevitable, but many wonder if the Packers will try to avoid restructuring Rodgers’ deal as a way to keep their options open next offseason–you know what I’m referring to.

However, that’s a story for another day — or maybe I get into it a little later on — but the benefit of restructuring Rodgers’ contract is that it would free up some much-needed cap space in 2021.

According to Over the Cap, Rodgers comes with a cap hit this season of $37.2 million, which includes a $14.7 million base salary and a $6.8 million roster bonus. To clear cap space, Green Bay can take portions — or all of it depending on how aggressive they want to be — of Rodgers’ base salary and/or roster bonus and convert it to a signing bonus.

That then creates cap space in 2021 and allows the Packers to spread the cap hit out over the 2022 and 2023 seasons—the final years of Rodgers’ contract.

In a way, the Green Bay Packers could almost use Rodgers’ base salary like an ATM, converting it — or portions of it — to a signing bonus to free up cap space when needed. But when it comes to his roster bonus, Green Bay has three days from the beginning on the new league year (Wednesday) to convert all or some of it, otherwise, all $6.8 million will count against the 2021 salary cap, according to ESPN’s Rob Demovsky.

The benefit of doing this is that the Packers would create an additional $6.8 million — if they were to convert all of it — in cap space this season. The downside is that whatever is saved in 2021 is prorated to 2022 and 2023, where Rodgers’ cap hits already sit at $39.8 million and $28.3 million, respectively.

In the next day or so, we will see how the Green Bay Packers feel, but I believe this is an easy decision to make–they should do it. Aaron Rodgers is coming off an MVP season in 2020, and I just don’t see his play dropping off so steeply that a year from now, we are wondering if it’s time to move on. He’s one of the league’s best at the game’s most important position, and adding another few million to his cap hit in 2022 and 2023 doesn’t concern me.

But for argument’s sake, let’s say the Packers do want to move on next offseason; his dead cap hit — money still on the books — will be substantial, around $20 million–it’s already at $17.2 million. On the flip side, Green Bay will still create around $20 million in cap space if they end up moving on from him. So if they really want to, they can still get out of his deal.

This roster bonus is such a small amount — especially when prorated — that restructuring it really shouldn’t hinder their decision-making in the future. However, it does create some needed cap space in 2021. We will wait and see how this plays out as the deadline is quickly approaching.