The Ghosts of Contracts Past Continue to Haunt Packers

The Green Bay Packers went all in, so to speak, by restructuring a bunch of contracts last offseason. In some cases, the contracts will be on the books in 2023 but the players won’t be in uniform.

Author:
Bill Huber
Publish date:
Jan 27, 2023 9:07 AM EST

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Green Bay Packers

GREEN BAY, Wis. – Nobody can accuse Green Bay Packers general manager Brian Gutekunst of not pushing his chips into the middle of the table last offseason.

Armed with a team coming off a third consecutive 13-win season, Gutekunst moved heaven and earth to keep the gang together for another push in 2022. He and his right-hand man, Russ Ball, touched practically every contract imaginable to create the cap space necessary to keep the roster intact and even add a few budget-friendly veterans.

It didn’t work, obviously, with the Packers finishing 8-9 and failing to even reach the playoffs. If that was the insult, now comes the salary-cap injury.

One easy way to create cap space is to take a player’s base salary and roster bonus and turn it into signing bonus, which can be prorated over the remainder of the contract. A perfect example is what’s likely to come this offseason for running back Aaron Jones.

Jones will be entering Year 3 of a four-year, $48 million deal. After two team-friendly years, Jones’ cap number is set to soar to a little more than $20 million in 2023. The big numbers are an $8.1 million base salary and $7 million roster bonus. The Packers can cut Jones’ salary to the league minimum, then take the difference and the roster bonus and convert it into signing bonus. Voila, Jones gets every penny of his money and the Packers create $10.5 million of cap space.

There’s no such thing as a free lunch, and the room-service tab eventually comes due. It will come due for Jones, just like it’s coming due for a handful of players who will have lingering salary-cap charges in 2023 even if they leave the team via free agency this offseason.

Last offseason, Adrian Amos’ $7 million base salary was cut to the minimum and turned into signing bonus. With four void years added, his cap number for 2022 was slashed from $11.98 million to $7.28 million, which created $4.70 million of cap relief.

The Packers will pay the piper in 2023. Amos’ cap number is $7.95 million even though he might depart in free agency.

Through similar contract gymnastics, a few other free agents will have lingering cap charges:

- Defensive tackle Dean Lowry: $3.01 million.

- Defensive tackle Jarran Reed: $1.49 million.

- Receiver Randall Cobb: $1.39 million.

- Tight end Marcedes Lewis: $1.05 million.

- Kicker Mason Crosby: $1.01 million.

- Tight end Robert Tonyan: $500,000.

That’s about $16.4 million of cap money that will be burned up on players who might not be on the roster in 2023. Of course, that’s just a drop in the bucket compared to the potential dead-money charge of a retired or traded Aaron Rodgers, but that’s a lot of money that won’t help next season’s team compete.

To make ends meet, the Packers once again will grab their credit card. As Gutekunst said after the season, “With the way we’re doing things lately, we’ll probably restructure everybody and try to keep making some room.”

Along with Jones’ salary and roster bonus, left tackle David Bakhtiari’s $6.7 million salary and/or $9.5 million roster bonus and cornerback Jaire Alexander’s $11.45 million roster bonus are sure to be restructured. The Packers also could do something with defensive tackle Kenny Clark’s $13 million base salary, whether that’s a restructure or an outright extension of a player who is under contract through 2024.