Predicting the 12 Moves that get Green Bay Packers Under the Salary Cap
By Paul Bretl
Green Bay Packers Cut Za’Darius Smith
Cap Savings: $15.28 million
The writing seems to be on the wall for this one. While Za’Darius Smith didn’t specifically say “goodbye,” following the Green Bay Packers playoff loss to San Francisco, he posted on Instagram what felt like a goodbye post to the Green Bay faithful.
Moving on from Smith is the second-largest cap move that the Packers can make this offseason behind only extending or trading Aaron Rodgers–and that is cap space that the team really needs. With the play of Preston Smith and Rashan Gary last season, they were able to show that they could absorb Z. Smith’s absence from the lineup, and as a unit, the Packers were one of the best teams in football at generating pressure.
Smith is also going to be 30-years-old entering this season, and he’s coming off a back injury that kept him sidelined for much of the year. Neither of those things may end up playing any sort of factor in Smith’s playing moving forward, but they are noteworthy.
Green Bay Packers Cut Mason Crosby
Cap Savings: $2.39 million
This is a difficult decision to make. As we’ve seen around the NFL, especially within the NFC North, finding a reliable kicker is not an easy task, but the Green Bay Packers have had one for well over a decade.
The nine field goals missed in 2021 certainly don’t all fall on Crosby as the field goal blocking unit was quite poor at times. However, one of the issues was that Crosby particularly struggled on field goal attempts from over 40-yards, and he also did not consistently put his kickoffs deep into the end zone, which led to return attempts for a poor coverage unit to defend. Crosby will be 38-years-old soon, and it does look like he’s lost some power.
We don’t know what the Green Bay Packers have in JJ Molson, but he has been on the practice squad for nearly two seasons, so there must be something that they are intrigued by. This offseason is going to be filled with penny-pinching decisions, and this is one of them.