To keep Green Bay’s first-round picks for an extra season, it will cost them $27.5 million in options
The fifth-year options for 2022 first-round draft picks were announced on Friday, following the league locking in the 2025 salary cap and franchise tag figures. Between now and May 2nd, NFL teams will need to make decisions to either pick up or decline these options.
The Green Bay Packers made two first-round selections in 2022 and would have made a third if they could have found a trade partner to allow them to take receiver Christian Watson, who they wound up taking in the early second round. Their first-round picks were defensive tackle Devonte Wyatt and linebacker Quay Walker, both Georgia products.
Because Wyatt was 1 of 13 picks who didn’t hit the playing time criterion, he is set to earn $12.9 million in 2026, should the Packers pick up his option. Walker, who did hit the playing time criterion, would make $14.6 million.
Those are both very high cap figures, which will likely be declined. Green Bay general manager Brian Gutekunst stated during press availability at the combine this week that he hopes that the team can reach a long-term contract with Walker, but that the linebacker options and tags are inflated due to 3-4 outside linebackers, pass-rushers not off-ball linebackers, being included in the formula.
For perspective, from an average salary standpoint, there are 16 linebackers who earn at least $14.6 million per year. Only three of those players, Fred Warner, Roquan Smith and Tremaine Edmunds, are off-ball linebackers. Picking up Walker’s option would essentially be paying him like a top-four off-ball linebacker in the sport. That’s the root of Gutekunst’s hesitation.
According to Spotrac , only 19 defensive tackles in football make the $12.9 million that Wyatt would have come his way if his option was picked up. Considering that Wyatt has started all of five games in three seasons, all coming in 2023, that is priced too high, too.
Go ahead and assume that the Packers will be turning down these options, even if Wyatt and Walker are in the team’s long-term plans. If they receive extensions, their average salary will be well below the price it is to pick up their fifth-year option, even with a rising salary cap.
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