Packers Clear More Cap Space Restructuring David Bakhtiari’s Deal
By Paul Bretl
The Green Bay Packers are at it once again in an effort to get under the salary cap.
Earlier this week, they cleared nearly $11 million in 2022 cap space by restructuring Kenny Clark’s deal. Then Green Bay would create just over $3 million in cap space by restructuring Aaron Jones’ contract—and both moves were expected.
Now another expected move has taken place as the Green Bay Packers have restructured David Bakhtiari’s contract.
According to Field Yates of ESPN, the Packers have restructured Bakhtiari’s contract by converting $11.58 million of his 2022 compensation — likely a combination of his base salary and roster bonus — into a signing bonus, which will lower his current cap hit.
Although we don’t know the exact savings at this time, Ken Ingalls projects that a simple restructure would lower Bakhtiari’s cap hit by $7.7 million and if the Packers add voided years, which they did on both Clark and Jones’ restructures, Green Bay could save $9.2 million.
The mechanics of this move from a cap-saving perspective are fairly simple. A player’s base salary and roster bonus all count towards the current cap year. However, by converting those dollars to a signing bonus, the Packers are now able to spread those cap hits out over the life on Bakhtiari’s deal—thus lowering his 2022 cap hit.
While the Green Bay Packers are benefiting at the moment from some cap relief, those charges they pushed into future years have to come due at some point. Bakhtiari’s contract was already restructured in 2021, and prior to this current move, his cap hits in 2023 and 2024 were $26.2 million and $30.2 million, respectively. Those cap hits will now be increasing.
Bakhtiari would appear in just one game last season and play only 27 snaps as he recovered from his ACL injury. As Andy Herman of Packer Report pointed out, given the size of those future cap hits, this could be a sign that the Packers feel confident about Bakhtiari regaining his old form because getting out of this contract in the coming years is now going to be rather difficult.
Between these three moves, the Packers have already cleared a significant amount of cap space this offseason. There will be plenty of moves to follow; however, what those are exactly, remain to be seen. But one of the more predictable moves that we should see is an extension for Jaire Alexander.