What to Know: Packers have $35M in roster bonuses due during free agency
By Paul Bretl
The NFL’s new league year begins on March 15th, 2023, and on the third day of it, or March 17th, the Green Bay Packers have a total of over $35 million in roster bonuses due to six different players.
According to Joel Corry, a former NFL agent now with CBS Sports, on that day, Jaire Alexander will receive a roster bonus of $11.45 million. David Bakhtiari, meanwhile, has a roster bonus of $9.5 million due. De’Vondre Campbell $3 million, Kenny Clark and Rasul Douglas $2 million each, and Preston Smith $7.5 million.
Roster bonuses are common in NFL contracts and are paid in full on the day specified in the deal, which for these six players all falls on the same day for the Packers. The total amount of the roster bonus counts towards the current year’s salary cap.
There are two ways that a team can avoid paying this to help their salary cap situation. The first is by cutting or trading the player prior to the specified date when the roster bonus is due. However, as we go through the players who are eligible for a roster bonus, that alternative makes little sense for the Packers.
For one, cutting Alexander or Clark isn’t even a thought that should occur. And second, the cap savings that come with moving on from the others isn’t large enough to justify cutting them. For example, the largest cap savings that comes from releasing either Bakhtiari, Douglas, Smith, and Campbell is $5.7 million from Bakhtiari. When on the field, he continued to play at a high level, and his knee was never really an issue during the second half of the season.
In the grand scheme of the salary cap, $5.7 million doesn’t do a whole lot for the Packers. As Brian Gutekunst said, left tackles don’t grow on trees, not to mention that following the Washington game last season, Matt LaFleur mentioned how the offense operates differently when Bakhtiari is on the field. The offensive line play in 2022 was already up and down, and it won’t get any better by taking Bakhtiari out of the mix. When it comes to the other players, they all come with just a few million dollars in savings—which again, isn’t worth it considering the impact that would be lost on the football field.
Sure, the Packers need all the salary cap help they can get, but regardless of who the quarterback is in 2023, their intention should be to compete. We know this will be the case if Aaron Rodgers returns, and for the Packers to best evaluate Jordan Love, they should put the best team around him, which includes hanging on to these players.
The other way that the Packers can avoid paying a portion of these roster bonuses is through a contract restructure. While the cap hit from a roster bonus is due in the current year, converting those dollars to a signing bonus allows the team to spread the cap hit out over the life of the contract, which is likely multiple years. This very much is a path that we could see the Packers take in the coming weeks.
Currently, the Packers are $4.6 million over the 2023 salary cap and have to be under by the start of the new league year. In addition to the $4.6 million, the Packers have to clear a lot more than just that amount to ensure they have enough cap space for the incoming draft class and practice squad, along with money to spend in free agency and during the season for any additions and practice squad elevations that will inevitably take place, among other things.
The projection from Over the Cap that has the Packers $4.6 million over does account for the roster bonuses for each of those players, so Green Bay’s salary cap hole will not increase.