Martha Careful
11 months ago
Bill Huber wrote

Preston Smith’s Pay Cut Helps Packers’ Salary Cap
Veteran outside linebacker Preston Smith is coming off a third consecutive season of at least eight sacks.

INDIANAPOLIS – Green Bay Packers outside linebacker Preston Smith accepted a pay cut to help keep his place on the roster and help the team in its pursuit of clearing as much cap space as possible ahead of the start of the league-year.

Smith was due a total of $12.4 million in 2024, including a $5.7 million base salary and $5.4 million roster bonus. As reported by ESPN.com’s Field Yates, Smith agreed to cut that number to $10 million. That’s a straight $2.4 million decrease and an additional $2.4 million in cap space.

To make up for it, Smith can make additional money through sack incentives.

The move has Green Bay about $9.5 million under the $255.4 million salary cap.

Unlike this week’s restructure of Rashan Gary’s contract, this move will have no future salary-cap ramifications.

Smith, who turned 31 in November and is the oldest player on the defensive side of the ball – and would be the oldest player on the roster if the team releases David Bakhtiari – is coming off another strong season.

Smith started all 17 games for a second consecutive season. He had eight sacks – his third consecutive season with at least eight – and 21 quarterback hits, according to the official league stats. Over the final five games (including playoffs), he had at least a half-sack in four games for a total of 4.5.

He had 45 pressures, according to Pro Football Focus, which ranked 44th among edge defenders. He cut his missed-tackle count from 15 to six. Plus, he’s been consistently the best run defender among Green Bay’s outside linebackers.

Now, he is headed back to defensive end in Jeff Hafley’s schematic switch. Really, the change will be rather trivial for Smith. He will have a key role alongside Gary and 2023 first-round pick Lukas Van Ness; Kingsley Enagbare will miss the first half of the season with a torn ACL.

In five seasons with the Packers, Smith has 41.5 sacks. Officially, he is tied with Ezra Johnson for sixth place on the franchise career list.

Smith, who is under contract through the 2026 season with future base salaries of $12.0 million and $12.6 million, set the tone after the season-ending loss at San Francisco.

“We’ve got to have a championship offseason,” he said, “so everything rolls into the season because, at the end of the day, those games come back to following your training, trusting your technique and trusting everything you worked hard for this offseason.

“Coming into this next season, we’ve got to focus on the things that we can improve on, make sure that our weaknesess are our strengths, and we improve on the things we’re good at.”

Obviously we are keeping him, and I would assume we are looking at him as more of a Sam or a DE in our 4-3 scheme. That would seem to elevate the need for MLB over ILB.
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wpr
  • wpr
  • Preferred Member
11 months ago
Like Jones, Smith is willing to do whatever is best for the team. He seems to be the anti Z Smith. I keep thinking about what he told his daughter when he first signed with the Packers. His daughter came home from school and saw that Preston had a strange look on his face so she asked him what was wrong. Preston was still processing the ramifications of the contract he signed told his daughter, "Baby, we're rich."
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bboystyle
11 months ago
Smith has had a small fall off but worthy of keeping especially since he restructured his contract.

Just neew to draft safety and MLB.
Martha Careful
11 months ago

Smith has had a small fall off but worthy of keeping especially since he restructured his contract.

Just neew to draft safety and MLB.

Originally Posted by: bboystyle 

Or acquire via free agency, which I would prefer.

Proven commodities are a good thing.

Go Packers!!!!
beast
11 months ago

Bill Huber wrote
Obviously we are keeping him, and I would assume we are looking at him as more of a Sam or a DE in our 4-3 scheme. That would seem to elevate the need for MLB over ILB.

Originally Posted by: Martha Careful 



Um, what do you see as the difference between MLB vs ILB positions?

Anyways, Smith is an Edge Rusher like he always has been.

And all 32 teams run different versions of the 4-2 majority of the time, usually more than 70% of the times.

Campbell is the run LB, and Walker is the coverage LB.
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Martha Careful
11 months ago

Um, what do you see as the difference between MLB vs ILB positions?

Originally Posted by: beast 

NONE However, I see several differences in OLB v. ILB skill sets. M/ILBs should be able to quickly fill gaps and stop runners head on and (ideally) in their tracks vs. hop on an be taken for a 3- yard ride. OLBs will generally engage from the side v head on. Further, PSmith is not strong playing in space, ergo the SAM designation (which, of course, will be mitigated by other teams motion to shift TE away from him.) I see Walker as having much better potential of playing well in space. However, he in NOT an M/ILB in my opinion

Anyways, Smith is an Edge Rusher like he always has been.

Originally Posted by: beast 

AGREE
...

Campbell is the run LB, and Walker is the coverage LB.

Originally Posted by: beast 

All of the back 7 need to cover and stop the run. If you can't do both, we don't have the right guys. Yes, some will certain aspects better than others, but we have to do both. Part of the problem with our defense is the mentality that a player has only responsibility on 1 or the other (thinking of a one of our CB's in particular)

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packerfanoutwest (10-Feb) : pro bowl
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Mucky Tundra (10-Feb) : for some reason i'm thinking of a draft where the Eagles where in the mid 20s and a top player fell all the way to them
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