What to Know: Packers restructure Darnell Savage’s contract

To help with their tight salary cap situation, the Green Bay Packers continued to do what they’ve done for the previous three offseasons, kick the salary cap can down the road.

The most recent move of this kind was restructuring Darnell Savage’s contract, which created $5.46 million in cap space for the 2023 season, according to ESPN’s Field Yates.

The Green Bay Packers picked up Savage’s fifth-year option last offseason, which gave him a fully guaranteed salary in 2023 of $7.9 million. With the fifth-year option essentially being a one-year deal, that also meant that Savage’s cap hit was $7.9 million as well.

Along with Yates’ reporting, Rob Demovsky would add that the Packers utilized four void years to push cap charges into future years, and $6.82 million of Savage’s $7.9 million deal was converted into pro-rateable cap dollars, which included a $4 million signing bonus. The end result was Savage’s base salary being reduced to just $1.08 million in 2023.

Below are more details from Demovsky on the reworked contract, where it certainly sounds like the Packers want to have the option to sign Savage to a new deal next offseason.

"“They (the Packers) added roster bonuses into the voidable years that would allow them to do an extension with Savage before free agency next March. With them, the league rule that prevents an extension of renegotiated contracts would not apply.”"

When discussing void years, it is important to note that this is not a contract extension, but in short, it is a bookkeeping measure that adds years to the contract on paper. By converting Savage’s base salary to a signing bonus, rather than incurring that entire cap hit in 2023, those cap charges are now prorated over the life of the contract, which with the void years, runs through 2027.

However, when Savage’s deal actually voids next February, the cap charges that were pushed into the void years (2024 to 2027) accelerate and come due on the 2024 salary cap unless an extension is reached beforehand. The Packers are currently experiencing this with Adrian Amos, Robert Tonyan, Mason Crosby, and Marcedes Lewis. None are on the current roster, but all left behind dead cap hits after the Packers utilized void years on their previous deals.

Hindsight being 20/20, perhaps Brian Gutekunst would take back exercising Savage’s fifth-year option last offseason if he could. Savage had a down season that was littered with missed tackles, coverage breakdowns, and he was even benched at one point–although he did play better during the final weeks of the season.

With the current state of the Green Bay safety room that is short on experience, Savage is likely going to continue playing a large role in the Packers’ defense. Earlier this offseason, Matt LaFleur said that Keisean Nixon would be in the slot, which means Savage will be lined up deep at safety.

My guess is that in order to have enough cap space to get the Jordan Love extension completed, restructuring Savage’s contract was a necessity. Before these two moves the Packers had $11.9 million in available cap space, according to Over the Cap. They also still have unaccounted for expenses not yet on the books, one of which includes signing the incoming draft class.