Extension for Rashan Gary an easy move for Packers this offseason

The Green Bay Packers face another challenging offseason ahead. Once again, we do not know what the future holds for quarterback Aaron Rodgers. And on top of that, the Packers are again in a salary cap crunch, currently listed at $16.4 million over the 2023 salary cap. Green Bay will likely resort to kicking the can down the road, as they have done in previous offseasons, in an effort to create that much-needed cap space.

While there are certainly a number of difficult decisions Brian Gutekunst and Co. will have to make, one of the easiest ones will be extending Rashan Gary.

Prior to suffering a season-ending injury in Week 9 against Detroit, Gary had been one of the more disruptive edge rushers in football. He finished the regular season ranked third among all edge rushers in PFF’s pass rush productivity metric and ninth in win rate–two efficiency measurements.

The Green Bay pass rush also struggled to get after the quarterback with any sort of consistency without Gary, exposing the lack of depth they had at the position, a major concern prior to the 2022 season even beginning. Overall, the Packers finished the year ranked 21st in total pressures generated.

In addition to what he brings to the football field on Sundays, Gary, who was in his fourth NFL season, has also taken on a leadership role off of it. During training camp last summer, Matt LaFleur would call Gary a “tone-setter.”

"“Rashan is a tone-setter, and I think you guys see that each and every day,” LaFleur said via NFL.com. “He’s got the capability of wrecking practice.” LaFleur then added, “he’s just relentless. He plays with a great motor and energy, and I think it rubs off on everybody. He makes everybody around him better.”"

As a former first-round pick, the Packers picked up Gary’s fifth-year option for the 2023 season last spring. Based on his position and performance metrics, this gives Gary a guaranteed salary of $10.89 million this season. With this essentially being a one-year deal, it also means that Gary carries a cap hit in 2023 of that same amount.

A contract extension, however, will not only keep Gary in Green Bay beyond this upcoming season, but it will also help the Packers’ salary cap situation by potentially lowering it by $7.87 million, according to Over the Cap, even if he becomes one of the highest paid players at the position.

With additional years on a new deal, the Packers have a longer runway to spread the cap hit over. I’m guessing that much like Green Bay did with Kenny Clark, Gary will receive a hefty signing bonus, which can be prorated over the life of the contract while his base salary — and cap hit — in 2023 remains relatively low.

In 2022, Maxx Crosby of the Raiders was the fifth highest-paid edge rusher in terms of average annual value, making $23.5 million per year. TJ Watt was the highest-paid, earning $28 million per year on average.

Gary is still working his way back from the ACL injury that cut his 2022 season short, and at this time, we do not know when he will be back on the field. However, that really should have no impact on contract negotiations. This is a move that you can expect to get done in the coming months–just as the Packers did with Jaire Alexander, who was also going to be playing on a fifth-year option last offseason.