Green Bay Packers: Post Free Agency Frenzy Salary Cap Update

I’m terms of outside additions, it’s been a quiet free agency period for the Green Bay Packers, with long-snapper Joe Fortunato being the only player signed who wasn’t on the roster in 2020. However, that doesn’t mean that the Packers haven’t been busy. In fact, they’ve made quite a few moves this offseason just to get under the salary cap.

With the salary cap plummeting from the $198.2 million that it was at in 2020 to just $182.5 million this year, at one point, the Green Bay Packers found themselves roughly $20 million over the salary cap.

This led to several contract restructures, basically pushing the salary cap issues into 2022 and allowing Green Bay to keep their roster intact. Players who received restructures included David Bakhtiari, Adrian Amos, Mason Crosby, Billy Turner, and Za’Darius Smith.

On top of that, Preston Smith would take a pay cut, as would Devin Funchess—albeit a much smaller one. Not to mention that Rick Wagner and Christian Kirksey were cut early on.

These moves gave the Green Bay Packers the cap room to re-sign Aaron Jones, Marcedes Lewis, Kevin King, and Tyler Lancaster while also tendering contracts to all of their exclusive rights free agents as well as restricted free agents Robert Tonyan and Chandon Sullivan.

So, after all of that, where do the Green Bay Packers stand when it comes to the salary cap?

According to Over the Cap, the Packers currently have $4.71 million in available cap space after the flurry of financial moves that they made. However, this figure does not include Lewis’ deal at this time as we do not know the details of it. What we do know is that it is a two-year deal worth $8 million, but not how it’s broken down or what the cap hit in 2021 will be.

But as I’ve talked about numerous times, there are other costs that have to be baked in when discussing the salary cap. All of these salary cap figures that we see are only for the top-51 players on the roster, and of course, there are 53. Green Bay also has to sign the draft class, the practice squad and leave some money available for any in-season additions.

Ken Ingalls, who independently tracks the Packers’ salary cap situation, projects that those costs will still require an additional $11.5 million in cap space needed with $5 million being set aside for in-season spending–that is the biggest variable in all of this as it can vary quite a bit. Meaning, more cap gymnastics are likely to follow.

The two biggest cap-saving moves that Green Bay can make is with an extension for Davante Adams, who is entering the final year of his deal and comes with a $16.7 million cap hit in 2021. Along with restructuing Aaron Rodgers’ contract as he does have a $14.7 million base salary this season that can be reworked.

There have been a few reports out there stating that Green Bay and Rodgers are working on a restructure, but it’s worth noting that the Packers don’t need Rodgers’ permission to rework that $14.7 million base salary. So perhaps there is more to it than just a simple restructure. Or maybe it’s nothing. I don’t believe anyone outside of the organization knows at this point.

After claiming the NFC’s top seed last season and coming within one game of the Super Bowl, it’s clear that GM Brian Gutekunst prioritized running back pretty much the same roster that the Packers had in 2020–minus Jamaal Williams and Corey Linsley. In doing so, they managed to get under the salary cap and created some additional space; however, as I mentioned at the beginning, Gutey and Co. really kicked the can into 2022 to do so.