5 Worst Packers Contracts to Overcome This Offseason
By Cem Yolbulan
4. Preston Smith - Cap Hit: $16.5 Million
Preston Smith's base salary is only $5.7 million but he has a roster bonus of $5.4 million that complicates things for the Packers. The front office can choose to restructure the bonus but that is only pushing the problem to be dealt with later.
The 31-year-old linebacker has been a reliable and productive member of the defensive front for the past five seasons. He had at least eight sacks in each of the last three seasons.
However, Smith is getting up there in age and the Packers are in the process of getting younger. They ideally want to give more snaps to their first-round pick Lukas Van Ness.
Smith was open to restructuring his deal once before and can choose to do so again. Considering that cap savings from cutting Smith would be minimal, keeping him around for another season makes some sense.
The Packers would only get an additional $2 million in cap savings before June 1 or $4 million post-June 1 if they released Smith. The cap savings for 2025 and 2026 might still make it worth it for the Packers to move on from him but that depends on what Gutekunst thinks he can do with the extra cap space.