Green Bay Packers: 3 Players You May Want Cut But Won’t Be

Green Bay Packers IDL Dean Lowry

With the salary cap crunch that took place this offseason, the Green Bay Packers needed to create some serious cap space as they found themselves around $30 million over the cap at one point. This meant that some financial gymnastics were going to have to take place, and the assumption by many was that Dean Lowry was going to be one of those veteran cuts.

However, free agency came and went, and the Packers were able to work their way out of the red while still hanging on to Lowry. Then the focus from many shifted to after June 1st, which would have created $4.8 million in cap space had Green Bay cut him at that point—and technically, that could still happen; we are post-June 1st, after all.

Although it could still technically happen, it’s not going to. With the recent restructure of Lowry’s deal, if you’re holding out hope that the team would move on from him in lieu of cap savings, well, that’s not happening anymore.

Green Bay was able to push cap charges from 2021 into future years by adding voided years to his deal. The cap savings that they could reap by cutting him went from $4.8 million to just $1.69 million, and any cap charges pushed to those voided years would accelerate and come due upon the termination of his contract.

On top of that, it’s not only the financials that will keep Lowry here, but it’s not as if the Packers have a deep interior defensive line room either. I’m a big fan of  TJ Slaton and what he can add to the defense, but he is a fifth-round rookie—expectations should be tempered. I think it’s safe to say that we know who Tyler Lancaster is at this point in his career and after those two are several practice squad players.

To put it simply, in addition to Kenny Clark and Kingsley Keke, the Green Bay Packers need Dean Lowry. So no, for those two reasons, he isn’t going anywhere.