5 Worst Packers Contracts to Overcome This Offseason
By Cem Yolbulan
The Green Bay Packers may be in an excellent position in terms of the amount of young talent and depth on the roster heading into next season. The same, however, can not be said about their financial situation.
General manager Brian Gutekunst has plenty of work to do in the offseason to get the Packers over the hump in 2024. He has a complicated cap space situation in front of him as an obstacle to do that.
The situation got even worse when Green Bay officially voided the contracts of Darnell Savage, Keisean Nixon, and Yosh Nijman. This added a $9 million salary cap hit to the Packers' books. According to Over the Cap, the Packers are now effectively $5.2 million over the projected salary cap.
With a lot of money tied to players who can't stay healthy or are underperforming, the Packers have to restructure, trade, or cut salaries to create enough room to maneuver in the offseason. However, some of these contracts will not even be possible to be moved. Let's take a look at the contracts that are the biggest obstacles for the Packers to overcome in 2024.
1. David Bakhtiari - Cap Hit: $40 Million
The simplest way for the Packers to create cap space is by moving David Bakhtiari. The left tackle is past his prime and only played in 13 games in the last three seasons. The Packers now have Rasheed Walker and Zach Tom at tackle, making Packers legend Bakhtiari rather superfluous.
Seeing fan favorite Bakhtiari in another uniform will certainly hurt Packers fans but it is very hard to justify bringing him back next season. Green Bay can save around $21 million in cap space if they cut him in the offseason.
There will still be $19.1 million dead money on the Packers' books after they release Bakhtiari but that is a price they should be willing to pay if they want to add more talent in free agency.