In a widely expected move, the Packers generated cap space by using max-void year restructures on Jaire Alexander (good for $9.456M) and Preston Smith ($6.668M) to free up a total of $16.123M in additional cap space.  Those moves, along with the max-void year restructure coupled with a $5M pay cut for Aaron Jones that generated $11.816M in cap savings, puts the Packers under the 2023 new league year salary cap limit.  The team is only under the new salary cap limit by $5.5M or so, or just under $2M after the Packers issue a second-round tender to restricted free agent Yosh Nijman, another widely expected move. 

Looking back at my last article, Packers Salary Cap in 2023 If Rodgers Were Traded , I listed the possible amounts the Packers could save using maximum restructures.  I listed Jones with a savings of $11.216M (it turned out to be $11.816M with the pay cut), Alexander with $9.456M (which came to fruition) and Preston Smith with $6.668M, which is what the team just wrung from his contract.  Here is the rest of that table:




Player


Amount


~


Player


Amount



Bakhtiari


$12.028M


 


Gary


$3.025M~



Clark


$11.068M


 


Campbell


$2.628M



Douglas


$3.336M


 


O'Donnell


$0.548M



Maximum contract adjustments involving those 6 players could total $32.623M more in cap relief.  [Gary is an estimate based on a contract extension instead of playing on his 5th-year option - I suppose the Packers could get a few million more if necessary and if Gary is cooperative as to his cash flow.]  There are ways to generate more cap savings, but they all would involve pay cuts or parting ways with the player in question.  
There will be no evidence of what the Packers' brain trust is thinking until the Packers adjust one or more of these contracts in a way that yields a significantly different number than I have noted in the table above.


The Packers eventually will need $5M or so for an in-season piggy bank, $3.456M for the PS, $1.5M for the 52nd and 53rd player contracts, perhaps $500K for practice squad elevations, a couple of hundred thousand for game active bonuses that might actually get earned, $3.907M (per Overthecap) to sign their draft picks, and $3.558M ($4.3M minus $750K) to tender Nijman at the 2nd-round level, and $849K in offseason workout charges.  That totals $19.17M.  Since the team is currently in the black by almost $5.5M,
the Packers need to find $13.67M more in cap savings, give or take.
  Under that scenario, the Packers would have options as to which contracts to adjust and by how much since they can generate $32.623M (some $18.95M more than the $13.67M they need to find) by restructuring those 6 players' contracts in the table above.  But wait, there's more!

Trading Aaron Rodgers decreases cap space by $9.44M ($8.69M plus $750K).  Moreover, the Packers presumably would receive a first-round pick, perhaps the 7th pick or the 13th pick.  OTC suggests the 7th picks' cap number will be $4.84M for 2023 while the 13th pick would cost $3.348M.  If the Packers were so fortunate as to also receive a second-round pick, pick 38 costs about $1.7M and pick 44 costs about $1.5M as estimated by Overthecap .  I cannot exactly quantify the cap ramifications of trading Rodgers, but a rough estimate might be $9.44M plus $3.5M to $6M for the draft picks, so around $13M to $15M?  Of course, perhaps the Packers receive just a second round pick this year and some conditional picks in 2024.  There isn't as much point to trading Rodgers if the team cannot sign the draft pick compensation. 

Trading Rodgers would reduce flexibility tremendously, though just in the short term.  For example, it might make it extremely difficult and perhaps impossible to trade Bakhtiari.  The Packers would save $5.7M on the cap by trading or releasing Bakhtiari, which is about $6.3M less than the table envisions in cap relief from his contract.  Trading him would make things tight, and if they got a first or second round pick for him, it would be difficult to sign that draft pick.  Perhaps the Packers could find a team willing to wait until June 2nd, and if Bakhtiari wanted out if Rodgers is traded, perhaps he would agree to wait for his roster bonus until June as well.  [I think the Packers want to keep Bakhtiari at present, though depending on how things go, they might consider trading him at prior to the trade deadline in 2023 or wait until 2024, hoping his knee holds up and he turns in an outstanding season.]

But wait, there's more!

As Ken Ingalls notes , the Packers have a number of free agents, and they played a lot of snaps.  Here is Ken's list with snaps (O/D/STs):




Player


Snaps


^


Player


Snaps


^


Player


Snaps



Amos


973/111


 


Lewis


451/68


 


Hollins


128/8



Lazard


863


 


Ford


442/108


 


Wilson


35/197




Nijman



756/66



 


Cobb


371/7


 


Ballentine


17/106



Reed


705/81


 


Nixon


289/231


 


Leavitt


0/308



Tonyan


591/3


 


Davis


174/346


 


Crosby


0/142



Lowry


482/18


 


Barnes


141/25


 


TOTAL


5,662/1,759



 It looks like the Packers will be able to retain Rich Bisaccia as ST coordinator, so it would be nice to hold on to the players he used the most on special teams.  Leavitt, Wilson, Davis, Nixon and Ford all will cost more than the bottom seven players on the roster who make $750K each.  Nixon's cap number is likely to be $2.5M to $5M if he returns to the Packers.  The other four players are all veterans with minimums over $1M, so they probably would eat perhaps $1.5M in cap space if they all return.

The Packers are unlikely to rely solely on Clark, Wyatt and Slaton on the defensive line.  I don't know if they want Reed back, but I suspect they would like to have someone similar if he is not available.  Hollins also was interesting and useful, and might get a raise.  I suspect that Barnes will be allowed to leave because McDuffie looked at least as good. 

I have no idea how the Packers evaluate Lazard, Tonyan, Amos, Lewis, Cobb, or Reed while also being unsure of their market value. If the Packers trade Rodgers and get a high first round pick back this year, the team probably lacks the cap space for more than a couple of these players, and even then it would be the lower paid players. 

If the Rodgers plays for the Packers in 2023, the Packers if they choose to clear as much cap space as possible could re-sign some but not all of their free agents, or bring in some outside free agents.  Until Rodgers decides whether he wants to play at all, and until the Packers, probably with input from Rodgers, decide where he is going to play, fans will just have to wait. 

For now, expect more restructures, and for the maximum possible in salary cap savings.

 

 

 





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