Packers Restructure Bakhtiari’s Contract

The Green Bay Packers reworked David Bakhtiari's contract on Friday, shifting money to create a big chunk of additional cap space for NFL free agency.

Author:
Bill Huber
Updated:
Mar 10, 2023 3:49 PM EST
Original:
Mar 10, 2023

In this story:

Green Bay Packers

GREEN BAY, Wis. – The Green Bay Packers and left tackle David Bakhtiari have agreed to a restructured contract to help deal with the team’s tenuous salary cap.

As first reported by ESPN.com’s Jeremy Fowler, the Packers converted his $9.5 million roster bonus into signing bonus and cut his $6.7 million base salary to the league minimum, with the difference also converted into signing bonus.

It was just a simple restructure and no void years were added, a source said.

Bakhtiari’s cap charge was scheduled to be about $28.85 million. With the shuffling of the money, the Packers created an additional $7.52 million of cap space.

According to OverTheCap.com, the Packers are about $24 million under the cap, including $20.2 million under when the 2023 draft class is taken into account.

His cap number for his final year under contract, 2024, has soared to $40,565,517. That is almost as much as Aaron Rodgers' scheduled $40,701,666.

For Bakhtiari, that includes a $20.2 million base salary, so the Packers could release him at this time next year and save $21.5 million of cap space, according to OTC.

Or, obviously, they could give him a contract extension – so long as he truly is beyond the knee injury sustained on New Year’s Eve 2020. In a hugely positive sign, he did not allow a sack in 11 starts in 2022.

“When he’s playing like that, it just is kind of a trickle-down effect and I think the whole unit as a whole played really, really well the second half of the season,” general manager Brian Gutekunst said at the Scouting Combine.

With the New York Jets pursuing Rodgers, Bakhtiari’s name has been linked in a potential trade. The Jets need a left tackle, as well. Fixing that position might require picking one in the first round, but the Packers might want that pick, No. 13 overall, as part of the trade.

Bakhtiari, who went from fourth-round pick in 2013 to All-Pro during nine spectacular seasons with the Packers, might welcome a chance to follow his good friend to New York.

However, the contract move made on Friday makes that less likely but not impossible. The $9.5 million roster bonus wasn’t due until Wednesday. Trading him with that bonus on the books will make it more expensive for the Packers to make the trade.

A league source said he assumes Bakhtiari will stick with the Packers for 2023 but he “wouldn’t put anything past the Packers if they’re rebuilding.”

Bakhtiari, who missed 22 of a possible 23 games spanning the end of the 2020 season through the start of the 2022 season, was excellent when he played. His blown-block rate of 1.4 percent (six pass, two run) ranked second among left tackles, according to Sports Info Solutions.

His comeback was derailed by a one-game absence at Washington because of the knee and three games following an emergency appendectomy.

“I thought I put on some good film,” he said a day after the season-ending loss to Detroit. “I’m very critical of myself, so there’s still a lot of things I nitpick. I feel like you need to be your biggest critic if you want to be a very good football player. But for the team and I guess for the public, yeah, I did a good job.”

He’s healthy entering the offseason, which will allow him to focus on strength and football training rather than rehab.

“I look at the offseason as putting on your armor and then, going through a season, you get deteriorated throughout the year,” Bakhtiari said optimistically.

“I don’t have a chance to put on my armor, I'm kind of going into war unprotected so, thankfully, did a really good job talking to training room, strength staff, even bringing in people from outside, making sure I can get myself to grow, because football's not in any rehab that you do coming off of surgery.”