Packers 2023 Offseason Salary Cap and Free Agency Tracker
By Paul Bretl
Another challenging offseason awaits the Green Bay Packers. There is cap space to be cleared, several positions of need that have to be addressed, and difficult personnel decisions to make, which includes at the quarterback position, along with 18 pending free agents of their own.
The Packers began the offseason at $16.4 million over the 2023 salary cap. In addition to working their way out of the red by March 15th, when free agency begins, Green Bay will also have to clear additional cap space for the incoming draft class, any free agents that they want to sign, the practice squad, along with having reserves for in-season spending. As has been the case in recent years, Green Bay will have to restructure their way out of this salary cap hole.
Some of Green Bay’s biggest positions of need that will either have to be tackled in free agency, in the draft, or in a few instances, both, include edge rusher, wide receiver, safety, tight end, and the interior defensive line. Below you will find a list of Green Bay’s 18 pending free agents.
Unrestricted Free Agents
Adrian Amos
Jarran Reed
Keisean Nixon
Justin Hollins
Allen Lazard
Dallin Leavitt
Robert Tonyan
Eric Wilson
Mason Crosby
Marcedes Lewis
Dean Lowry
Randall Cobb
Corey Ballentine
Rudy Ford
Restricted Free Agents
Yosh Nijman
Tyler Davis
Krys Barnes
To help stay up to date with everything salary cap and free agency related for the Packers, this tracker will highlight each of those incoming moves–so keep it close by and bookmarked over the next month-plus of the offseason.
February 17th: Aaron Jones takes a pay cut and contract restructure with Packers
Jones came with a massive cap hit in 2023 of over $20 million, an amount that the Packers simply couldn’t afford, especially at the running back position. So to stay in Green Bay, Jones agreed to have his salary reduced from $16 million to $11 million, and $8.52 million of his base salary was converted to a signing bonus, along with another voided year being added to his contract to help spread the cap hit out over a longer period of time. In total, this reworking of his deal created $11.8 million in cap space for the Packers this season.
To read more about the contract restructure and why it made sense for the Packers, click here.
February 20th: 7 contracts void
The Packers have been using void years in recent offseasons as one measure to help create needed cap space. Voided years don’t extend the actual life of the contract but are utilized for bookkeeping purposes to spread cap hits over. The downside, however, is that this only kicks the can down the road, and when the contract terminates, all of those cap charges pushed into the void years accelerate and come due.
For the Packers, they had seven players on voided contracts, which included Adrian Amos, Mason Crosby, Marcedes Lewis, Dean Lowry, Randall Cobb, Jarran Reed, and Robert Tonyan. The 20th of February was the deadline for Green Bay to come to contract extension agreements with any of these players, which would help push the voided year cap charges down the road again. But with no deals being reached, each of these players will become unrestricted free agents on March 15th, and they leave behind a total of $16.4 million in dead cap — or money that is still on the books and counts against the salary cap even if they are playing elsewhere — for the 2023 season.
Now, just because no deals were reached doesn’t mean the Packers can’t re-sign them in free agency. In fact, this is exactly how things played out with Tonyan and De’Vondre Campbell in 2021, although the chances of this happening with any of the seven players may have decreased.
February 25th: Packers restructure Jaire Alexander and Preston Smith’s contracts
Alexander was due a roster bonus of $11.45 million on March 17th and Smith had a roster bonus of his own due the same day worth $7.5 million, making both prime restructure candidates. The Packers would convert these roster bonuses to signing bonuses, allowing the cap hits to be spread out over the life of each contract, thus lowering the cap hit in 2023. On Smith’s contract, Green Bay also added a void year that allowed them to further reduce this year’s cap hit. With these moves, the Packers created roughly $16 million in cap space, and are now out of their salary cap hole, having about $6.5 million in available cap space. For more on these restructures, click here.
March 1st: Packers restructure Kenny Clark’s contract
With a base salary of $13 million and a roster bonus of $2 million due in a few weeks, Kenny Clark was a prime contract restructure candidate with a salary cap hit this season of nearly $24 million. However, instead of incurring a $15 million cap hit in 2023 between the roster bonus and base salary, the Packers took $13.835 million of that total and converted it to a signing bonus that can be prorated over the life of the contract while also adding a third void year to further lessen this year’s cap hit. In total, the Packers created $11.068 million in cap space, giving them a surplus so far of around $17 million.
March 10th: Packers restructure David Bakhtiari’s contract
David Bakhtiari had a cap hit of almost $29 million for the 2023 season, a massive amount that he was never going to play on. With cutting or trading Bakhtiari never viable options – read more here – a restructure was always going to be the outcome. To lower Bakhtiari’s cap hit, Green Bay took his $9.5 million roster bonus and $5.5 million of his base salary in 2023 and converted both to a signing bonus, pushing $7.5 million in cap charges to 2024, the final year of Bakhtiari’s deal. This then lowered the current year’s cap hit by $7.5 million, giving Green Bay about $24 million in available cap space at the moment. Bakhtiari’s cap hit in 2024 is now over $40 million, making it likely that this year will be his final in Green Bay—unless an extension becomes an option.
Please continue to refer back to this article over the coming month as it will be updated as roster moves are reported.