Packers Creatively Structure Tonyan’s Deal to Create Needed Cap Space

Through a few pay cuts and numerous contract restructures, the Green Bay Packers were able to work their way under the league’s shrunken $182.5 million salary cap this offseason. It wasn’t easy, and they had to push quite a bit of cap charges to future years in order to keep this team together, but they did it. However, that doesn’t mean their work is done.

As GM Brian Gutekunst told reporters prior to the draft, there were “a lot of contracts” that the team would have to address in the coming months. With the recent restructure of Dean Lowry’s deal, that put Green Bay at $4.9 million under the salary cap, according to Over the Cap. But with two rookies still unsigned, cap space needed for the practice squad, as well as for any potential in-season spending, more room is needed.

To get to this point, Gutey and Russ Ball have had to get creative, and they did so once again with the way they structured Robert Tonyan’s deal. As a Restricted Free Agent, the Green Bay Packers placed a second-round tender on Tonyan earlier this offseason. Essentially what that means is that if another team wanted to match Tonyan’s salary, the Packers would have the option to either keep Tonyan or let him sign with the new team and receive a second-round pick in return.

To our knowledge, no such offer was made, which means that Tonyan’s 2021 contract with Green Bay is worth $3.384 million–a predetermined amount already worked out between the NFL and the NFLPA. Since this is just a one-year deal, typically, all $3.384 million would count towards this year’s salary cap since there are no other future years to spread the cap hit out over. And given the Packers’ current cap situation, that’s a rather large chunk.

However, through some more financial gymnastics, the Packers were able to lessen Tonyan’s 2021 cap hit. According to Field Yates of ESPN. $2.349 million of Tonyan’s deal comes as bonuses, and they also added four void years to the contract. This helps because the bonuses can be prorated over those voided years, thus lowering the cap hit in 2021 by 1.879 million.

Now, anytime you create cap space for the current season, it doesn’t just magically go away–it has to hit the books at some point. The downside to this move is that if Tonyan isn’t on the team in 2022, the cap hits from the signing bonus that were pushed into the future voidable years accelerate and will all count towards next year’s cap. If they choose to sign him to a new multi-year deal next offseason when he is an unrestricted free agent, again, they can push cap charges to future years through a signing bonus.

So far this offseason, the Packers have added voided years to several other contracts as a way to keep this Super Bowl-caliber roster together while still operating below the $182.5 million salary cap figure.

The two big cap-saving moves still on the table for the Packers are possible extensions for either Davante Adams or Aaron Rodgers, who both come with rather large cap hits this season. Although at this time, we don’t know how either of those scenarios will play out. So, for the time being, Green Bay is going to have to nickel and dime their way to creating cap space, and in this case, with Tonyan, they did so fairly creatively.