No Surprise, Packers Restructure Aaron Jones Deal to Free Up Cap Space
By Paul Bretl
On Wednesday, the Green Bay Packers freed up nearly $11 million in cap space for the 2022 season by restructuring Kenny Clark’s deal. This was one of the more easily predictable moves in an offseason filled with uncertainty.
Another easily predictable cap move would be restructuring Aaron Jones’ contract, which according to Field Yates, the Packers have done.
As Yates mentions, the move creates $3.08 million in cap space for the 2022 season by converting $3.85 million worth of Jones’ 2022 compensation into a signing bonus while also adding two voided years to his contract.
The $3.85 million figure likely came from some combination of Jones’ base salary and roster bonus—both of which count towards the current cap year. But by converting those dollars to a signing bonus, Green Bay can spread the cap hit out over the life of the contract rather than incurring the entire cap hit in 2022.
With three years left on Jones’ current deal, the two voided years give the Packers five total years to spread that $3.85 million signing bonus out in equal $770,000 distributions—thus lowering Jones’ 2022 cap hit by $3.08 million.
And as I mentioned when discussing Clark’s restructure, the voided years don’t actually extend Jones’ contract; it is still up after the 2024 season. The voided years are for salary cap purposes, and if a new deal isn’t reached following the 2024 season, the cap charges pushed into those two voided years come due in 2025 as dead cap hits.
With all that said, while this move does provide much-needed cap relief at the moment, it’s always important to remember that when cap savings are created for the current year, the cap hits in future years become larger. At some point, those charges do have to hit the books–they don’t just disappear.
Jones’ cap hit in 2022 has fallen to $5.9 million, according to Ken Ingalls, but his cap hit in 2023 will be $20.1 million and $16.01 million in 2024. Jones’ cap figures in those two years were already high — $19.2 million and 15.2 million — prior to the restructure taking place due to how Green Bay back-loaded the original deal, but it’s a look at the massive cap hits that are incoming.
The Green Bay Packers entered Wednesday at almost $51 million over the salary cap, according to Over the Cap. But with just two moves, they have cleared almost $14 million in cap space.
The next move we should expect to see is Green Bay restructuring David Bakhtiari’s contract—similarly to what they’ve just done with Clark and Jones.
In 15 games with the Packers last season, Jones rushed for 799 yards on 4.7 yards per carry while recording 52 receptions — the second-most on the team — for 391 yards. Jones also found the end zone a total of 10 times.