Randall Cobb Takes Pay Cut to get Packers Under Salary Cap
By Paul Bretl
By 3:00 CST on Wednesday, the Green Bay Packers, and the rest of the NFL, needed to be under the salary cap for the new league year.
To get there, Randall Cobb took a pay cut for the Green Bay Packers. According to Tom Silverstein, Cobb’s base salary was cut by $5.5 million, lowering it from $8.5 million to $3 million.
To get under the salary cap, the #Packers cut WR Randall Cobb's salary by about $5.5 million. He was due to make around $8.5 million in total salary and now will make $3M, according to a league source.
— Tom Silverstein (@TomSilverstein) March 17, 2022
Reworking Cobb’s deal shouldn’t come as a surprise. The Packers acquired Cobb via trade from Houston last summer, including his contract, which came with a massive $9.5 million cap hit in 2022 following a restructure with Green Bay. Cutting Cobb could have saved additional cap space, but that was likely never an option with Rodgers returning.
Cobb played a relatively small role last season prior to his injury, finishing with just over three targets per game and 375 yards on 28 receptions. However, where he made his biggest impact was in higher-leverage situations, specifically, third and fourth downs as well as in the red zone.
On 17 third-down targets, Cobb caught 12 of them with 10 moving the chains. He also had four red zone receptions, all of which resulted in a touchdown. These numbers perfectly highlight the trust that Rodgers has in Cobb.
With Cobb sticking around, it will be interesting to see what that means for Amari Rodgers in 2022. On offense, Rodgers fills a fairly similar role as Cobb, and as a result, was used sparingly last season, recording just four receptions and 103 total snaps, per PFF ($$).
I have to imagine his role will increase—and I hope that’s the case. While Cobb will still carve out a role and be effective, he isn’t the same player he used to be. Also, the Packers did trade up for Rodgers and likely want to see what they have in the young receiver. But with Cobb’s return, the big question becomes, how much will Rodgers’ role actually change?
The Packers are now under the cap but more space will have to be created. They’ll need cap space for any other free agent re-signings and if they want to bring in any players from other organizations. On top of that, they’ll also need additional cap space to navigate the remainder of the offseason, most notably for the incoming draft class and eventual practice squad.