Deadline for Packers to Restructure & Extend Players w/ 2021 Cap is Near
By Paul Bretl
There’s a deadline quickly approaching for the Green Bay Packers, as well as the rest of the NFL, and perhaps it’s one that you didn’t know existed.
According to Ken Ingalls, who independently tracks the Packers salary cap, January 8th at 3:00 PM CST is the deadline for teams to restructure or extend a player’s contract while using the 2021 salary cap and league year.
As we all know, the Green Bay Packers are going to be facing a number of difficult financial decisions this upcoming offseason, given their 2022 salary cap. Over the Cap currently has Green Bay at $40.42 million over the projected 2022 salary cap, but as we’ve discussed before, this figure doesn’t take into account any free agent signings, the incoming draft class, the practice squad, or having cap space available for any in-season spending.
In short, the Packers are going to need to create a lot more cap space than just the $40.42 million that they’re currently over.
With $3.74 million in cap space still available for the 2021 season, it’s not as if Green Bay has a ton of room to work with. Also, it’s important to keep in mind that teams can roll over any unused salary cap from one year to the next–so any amount of cap space used at this time won’t be carried over to 2022.
However, there are certainly benefits to restructuring or extending a player’s contract—that, of course, is why it’s done so frequently. A restructure is a way to create cap space in the current season, often done by converting a player’s base salary to a signing bonus, allowing the team to spread that cap hit out over the remainder of the contract, rather than absorbing it all in the current year.
An extension can work similarly, but years are also added on to the contract. This allows the team to spread cap charges out over a longer period of time, effectively lowering the player’s cap hit at that time, and of course, the player remains under contract for a longer period of time as well.
We’ve seen Green Bay take advantage of this deadline before, agreeing to extensions in 2017 with both Davante Adams and Corey Linsley. More recently, during the 2019 season, the Packers would also sign Lucas Patric to a late-season extension as well.
As far as restructures go, really anyone who is under contract for at least the 2022 season is a candidate as long as there are cap savings to be had. Although ideally, the player will be under contract for more than just the 2022 season, otherwise voided years will have to be added to the contract. These voided years don’t actually extend a player’s deal, rather they’re recognized only on paper as a way for cap-strapped teams to create space.
However, in order to get under the 2021 salary cap and to have room for in-season spending, the Packers have already restructured a number of contracts over the past 10 months. I’m not sure that there is really anyone left at this point worth restructuring, so I wouldn’t anticipate them going this route.
David Bakhtiari and Kenny Clark are possible restructure candidates given their large cap hits and the Packers’ tight salary cap situation for 2022, but if those moves are to happen, I wouldn’t anticipate them taking place until the offseason.
In terms of extensions, the obvious candidate is Davante Adams, although after he and the Green Bay Packers broke off talks over the summer, we do not know if those have resumed. De’Vondre Campbell, Rasul Douglas, and Adrian Amos could be other candidates as well.
Perhaps the most likely move is that Green Bay does nothing for the time being and will address their financial roadblocks once the offseason arrives. But for a team that has been active around this deadline in the past, it’s worth monitoring.