Packers Restructure Jones’ Contract
GREEN BAY, Wis. – The Green Bay Packers created some easy salary-cap space with a restructure of running back Aaron Jones’ contract.
The revamped deal reduced Green Bay’s cap overage by $3.85 million, ESPN.com’s Field Yates reported on Thursday. It did so by reducing Jones’ base salary to the league minimum, turning a $3.75 million roster bonus into signing bonus and adding two void years to the end of the contract to help with the 2022 accounting.
Jones’ cap charges were $8.95 million in 2022, $19.25 million in 2023 and $15.25 million in 2024. Now, his cap charges are $5.901 million in 2022, $20.013 million in 2023, $16.013 million in 2024 and $1.526 million in 2025, the first of those void years.
When Jones re-signed on the eve of free agency last offseason, his four-year deal really was only a two-year deal. As part of his massive 2023 cap charge was a $7 million roster bonus due at the start of the league-year. If the Packers were to release Jones before paying that roster bonus, they’d save $10.46 million against the cap but absorb $9.55 million of dead money, according to OverTheCap.com.
Jones' cap charge for 2023 would be the highest in the league for a running back by about $2.3 million and the biggest in NFL history. (Dallas' Ezekiel Elliott is slated to have a cap charge of $18.2 million in 2022, according to OverTheCap.com.)
The Packers also created a big chunk of cap change with a restructuring of Kenny Clark’s contract on Wednesday. That restructure means Clark currently has the third-highest cap charge among interior defenders in 2023 and the second-highest in 2024.
“We touched Kenny’s contract and there will be many more that we touch along the way,” general manager Brian Gutekunst said on Wednesday. “I think again a lot of it will be as we go and what we need when we need it but, obviously, Kenny being an anchor and a pillar of our defense, that was kind of an easy one to start out with.”
The Packers remain about $40 million over the cap, according to OverTheCap, a figure that does not include a potential franchise tag for Davante Adams.
They must be beneath the cap by the start of the league-year on March 16.