3 Packers Who Should Be Cut Before Free Agency Opens

2. David Bakhtiari, OT

Let's do a little mental math here for a second. Bear with me.

The NFL's increase of $30.4 million on the 2024 salary cap was already massive for the Green Bay Packers in terms of keeping certain players, figuring out which guys to cut, and creating space to get those long-term extension talks with Jordan Love fired up.

After some restructures, the Packers have gotten themselves to nearly $13 million in cap space according to Spotrac. If they release Royce Newman, they will be up to around $16 million in cap space. If they release David Bakhtiari on top of that? That's another $20 million in added salary cap space, which would put the Packers at $36 million in potential cap space before NFL free agency.

I'm not saying Brian Gutekunst is going to go wild out there, but that kind of cap space could tempt even the most conservative general managers around the league.

Bakhtiari has been one of the Packers' best players when fully healthy, but he's appeared in just 13 games over the last three years, including one game in 2023 and one game in 2021. It's been a brutal stretch of bad luck with health for Bakhtiari, and it's time for the Packers to move on.