Everything You Need to Know About Packers’ Salary Cap Challenges, Solutions

Now that the Green Bay Packers’ 2025 season is in the books with a brutal playoff loss to the Bears, it’s time to turn the page to the 2026 campaign and get an idea of what this team might look like, speculate on who has played their last game with the team and what moves it can make to improve its chances of winning a Super Bowl.

The best way to do that is through the lens of the salary cap. Let’s dive into the finances and project a (most likely) path for the Packers’ 2026 roster.

Packers Salary Cap in 2026

First, we need to understand how big their wallet will be entering the offseason.

The 2025 salary cap was $279.2 million per team. Most cap analysts I’ve spoken to are projecting a 2026 figure to land between $302 million and $305 million. I am assuming the same increase as last year to land at a 2026 salary cap team allocation of $303 million.

The Packers will roll over every penny of unspent salary cap from the 2025 season to increase their 2026 salary cap. I project the Packers will roll over $8.7 million into 2026.

Additionally, the Packers will receive cap credits (refunds) for amounts charged against their cap in prior years for items not actually paid out or via legal settlements. I am projecting the Packers to receive $1.0 million of cap credits from Elgton Jenkins’ forfeited workout bonus, undrafted free-agent guaranteed salary chargebacks and missed LTBE (likely to be earned) per-game bonuses.

The team allocation, rollover, cap credits plus a league mandated offseason placeholder leads to an adjusted team salary cap of $311.8 million, from which the Packers must pay out all their cap costs for the 2026 season.

Most Cap Space Has Been Used

Now that we know their estimated wallet, it’s time to pay some bills.

Immediately, we must deduct the $17.2 million existing dead cap hits from contracts released after June 1. More than 99 percent of this is from Kenny Clark’s remaining 2024 signing bonus and back-to-back restructuring bonuses in 2022 and 2023 needing to hit the cap. That’s the cost of kicking the can down the financial road and trading Clark with three years left on his deal.

The Packers ended this season with 48 players under contract for next season. These players’ contracts total $297.7 million against the salary cap. The cost is significantly higher in 2026 than 2025 due to the recent trend of the Packers structuring contracts with ballooning cap numbers in later years.

It will be a busy offseason for Green Bay Packers executive vice president/director of football operations/cap guru Russ Ball. | Mark Hoffman/USA TODAY Network via Imagn Images

There are 18 players whose cap numbers are scheduled to raise more than $1 million next year. They alone combine for a staggering $95.3 million increased cap cost for the same players doing the same job.

The rest of the roster has marginally increased labor costs, but the high-earning veterans are significantly more costly and difficult to keep everyone around. More on that later.

Added together, the $17.2 million dead cap and $297.7 million for their contracted players means the Packers are already $3.1 million over the cap.

That’s the Starting Point

We are not done yet. This $3.1 million overage is just the starting point. There will be many costs to factor in well before the March cap deadline and even more before the regular season kicks off in September.

The popular cap websites may show numbers within a few million of this number but will be highly volatile in the coming weeks as they update their records for the 2026 season with some of the things discussed later in this article. There are many more bills to be paid we need to factor in to get a better understanding of their effective cap-space picture.

Four players will earn significant “proven performance escalator” raises due to their snap counts over their first three years of their rookie contracts. Tucker Kraft, Dontayvion Wicks, Karl Brooks and Carrington Valentine will receive a combined bump of around $9.8 million. These will kick in officially once the 2025 season concludes.

Green Bay Packers tight end Tucker Kraft will get a raise next season through the NFL's proven-performance escalator. | William Glasheen / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images

The Packers almost certainly will sign their four exclusive-rights free agents at their non-guaranteed zero-risk minimum salaries to return and bring back most of their 19 members of the practice squad on futures deals.

While relatively cheap in terms of NFL contracts, the minimum wage in 2026 is on average $1 million for these types of low-experience players. Once you add these 23 contracts to their 48 existing, minding we only count the salaries of the top 51 contracts in the offseason, we are projecting the Packers to be $16.9 million over the cap at the deadline.

There’s more. The draft will add an estimated $1.2 million – less than prior years mostly due to not having a first-round pick – to their top 51 contracts, putting them around $18.2 million over the cap after the draft.

The offseason rules end after the final roster cutdown, with all 53 players on the roster counting against the cap rather than the top 51. Plus, the minimum cost to fill a 16-man practice squad is $4 million.

There is about a $2.3 million placeholder needed for veterans with per-game bonuses who could play more in 2026 than in 2025 (lots of players missed games in 2025). Another smaller placeholder is needed for practice squad elevations, with players getting paid more when they are added to the gameday roster.

Lastly, I set aside an estimated $6 million contingency fund for injuries, extensions, trades and other stuff that happens. This is a conservative amount; the Packers tend to do much more.

All these costs put the Packers about $33.2 million effectively over the cap. This is before potentially signing any of their 18 restricted and unrestricted free agents, paying outside players to join the team or agreeing to extensions for their young playmaking core when free agency opens for business on March 11.

How Will Packers Create Cap Space?

So, how do the Packers make more space? They can’t increase their wallet, so the only way is to cut costs. While there is no crystal ball available for knowing for certain what will happen, here are the category tiers of how they can get the space they need to operate.

Tier 1: Goodbye, Elgton Jenkins and Rashan Gary

I had center Elgton Jenkins’ name circled as a cut candidate as soon as he held-in for more money in the offseason and the Packers balked. Then his play on the field and subsequent injury make him a virtual lock to be cut in the offseason.

Rashan Gary was quickly added to my trade list for 2026 the moment the team traded for Micah Parsons. Unfortunately for the Packers, his disappearance down the stretch and losing playing time to Kingsley Enagbare and Lukas Van Ness, all while wearing the captain’s patch, have convinced me no team will be willing to trade assets to acquire the remaining two years and $42 million on his contract.

Chicago Bears quarterback Caleb Williams (18) eludes Green Bay Packers defensive end Rashan Gary. | Dan Powers/USA TODAY NETWORK-Wisconsin / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images

Maybe they’ll hang on and try to trade Gary or do a post-June 1 release designation, but that severely limits their ability to have money freed up at the beginning of free agency. For now, I’m assuming a straight release with a small possibility of a massive pay cut to stick around.

These two former Pro-Bowlers should both be released before the start of the league year. Jenkins would free up $19.5 million and Gary would create an additional $11.0 million (less the cost to replace in the top-51 contracts) of much needed cap space. Keeping everything previously discussed the same, the Packers would still be effectively $4.3 million over the cap. These two large moves are not enough.

Tier 2: Rip Up Trevon Diggs’ Contract

The Packers claimed Trevon Diggs from the Cowboys entering Week 18, meaning they inherited his $15 million cap price tag in 2026.

Simply put, there is zero chance he will play for the Packers on this contract as written. Yes, he was awesome in 2021 but, just four years from an All-Pro season, the Packers were the only team to put in a waiver claim because they were desperate for cornerback help after placing Nate Hobbs and Kamal Hadden on injured reserve.

In the playoff loss to the Bears, Diggs played exactly one snap in a backup capacity behind Carrington Valentine and Keisean Nixon.

The Packers will either cut him to create $15 million in space with zero dead cap or the team will agree to a massive pay cut, which would create something like $10 million to $12 million in space in the process, putting them a few million into the black in terms of free cap space.

The cap space created by dealing with Jenkins, Gary and Diggs won’t go far. They likely will want to extend Tucker Kraft, Devonte Wyatt and Christian Watson. Maybe they’ll try to re-sign Quay Walker, Sean Rhyan, Kingsley Enagbare or any other of their stable of key contributors scheduled to leave in free agency.

How else can they create more cap space to pay their priority players and to bring in outside free agents?

Tier 3: Extend Devonte Wyatt

The Packers’ best defensive tackle is Devonte Wyatt, who is on the roster for 2026 at his fully guaranteed fifth-year option salary of $12.9 million.

Wyatt is really the only player entering his final season under contract who would provide savings (not additional cost) if extended. Unless there are significant issues with his recovery from a season-ending ankle injury, the Packers will surely look to extend Wyatt. That would probably drop his cap hit to half or two-thirds of his current value, which would create a few million dollars of cap space.

Green Bay Packers defensive tackle Devonte Wyatt could be in line for a contract extension. | Wm. Glasheen/USA TODAY NETWORK-Wisconsin / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images

Tier 4: Goodbye, Other Expensive Veterans?

Are there additional veterans who could be released or traded for big gains? Not as many viable names as you would think.

Outside of Jenkins, Gary and Diggs, there are only five contracts who provide north of $2 million in cap savings pre-June 1 if released. (Remember, they would be replaced with a player making about $1 million, so subtract this to get true net savings). Josh Jacobs leads with $8.3 million in potential cap savings, followed by Xavier McKinney ($7.6 million), Keisean Nixon ($5.0 million), Aaron Banks ($4.5 million) and Isaiah McDuffie ($3.7 million).

The four proven-performance-rookie-contract players – Kraft, Wicks, Brooks and Valentine – could provide around $3.7 million each once those raises hit, but they are likely to stick around.

Wyatt could save $12.9 million in a trade-only, but he’s clearly part of their upcoming plans – similar with Lukas Van Ness at $3.1 million if traded.

Jacobs is a name a lot of fans have thrown out, and it’s an interesting one. I think he’s got one more year before it’s time to move on.

Green Bay Packers running back Josh Jacobs (8) is stopped short of the goal line by the Chicago Bears. | David Banks-Imagn Images

The biggest issue is they don’t have a clear replacement. The only other running back signed is MarShawn Lloyd, who has been unavailable for 35 of his 36 season weeks in the league. Chris Brooks and Emanual Wilson are restricted free agents who may get pursued elsewhere and are not long-term answers.

McKinney has an $8.5 million roster bonus due within three days of the league year, so a decision would be made quickly if they choose to move on. Nixon is cheap and they are paper thin at corner.

Like McKinney, Banks, the team’s big free-agent addition this past offseason, has a $9.5 million roster bonus due. Fans have wanted him to be gone since the day he signed, but he’s been healthy and played much better since the bye. Also, the Packers are likely to release Jenkins and lose Rasheed Walker in free agency. They also could lose Rhyan in free agency. Getting rid of Banks, as well, and potentially booting four starters is a massive amount of turnover with not a lot of talent ready to take over.

McDuffie is cheap and they are thin at linebacker with three pending unrestricted free agents; he very well could be the starting “green dot” player on defense if they don’t re-sign Quay Walker.

Nate Hobbs is not on the savings list. The team’s other expensive free-agent signing, cutting Hobbs would create less cap space than the cost to replace him with a rookie undrafted player. If they were to move on from Hobbs, it would not be a salary-cap-centric decision.

Again, these are not post-June 1 designations, as those are much more complex, net out to the same savings over two seasons and require the team to carry the contracts up through June, anyway, before the savings can be utilized – usually well after it’s needed. They aren’t as sexy as they may seem on paper and the Packers rarely go down this road.

Reminder, the Packers took extra steps after releasing Jaire Alexander in June to ensure the team took on the full dead cap load all in 2025 instead of spreading the pain to gain another $9.5 million of cap space last season. They actively avoided the short-term salary cap benefits of a post-June 1 transaction, opting instead to take their medicine all at once.

Tier 5: Kick the Can

With the 2021 salary cap dropping by almost $16 million due to COVID, fans were introduced to the concept of void years and a “get rich quick” method of borrowing money from future years to cover short-term cap issues. The Packers could absolutely go this route again if they wanted to and there is a lot of potential money to steal from their future selves.

With simple restructuring (no void years), which means converting base salaries and roster bonuses into signing bonuses, the Packers could add $39.2 million in additional cap space if they adjusted every available contract (with the exception of Jenkins, Gary and Diggs). This jumps to $65.5 million if they were to add void years to all contracts, with the largest (excluding Jordan Love) being Aaron Banks’ $12.8 million and followed by Wyatt ($9.4 million), McKinney ($9.3 million), Jacobs ($7.1 million) and Hobbs ($5.5 million).

While this large restructuring bucket of money is available, I do not expect the Packers to go all-in nuclear. Instead, they will pick and choose.

Of all the top restructuring possibilities, none are ideal kick-the-can candidates. Wyatt is likely being extended on a new deal and would not be agreeable to a void restructuring if they do not extend him.

The others are all trending toward not being on the roster in two years. Restructuring and then dumping a year or two later brings a lot of pain, but the Packers may be forced to go in this direction if they need the cap space. The one restructuring that makes the most sense is Zach Tom for $2.7 million, as he has four years remaining and is one of their top young players. He’s a low-risk option for an easy few million in cap space.

Micah Parsons is set to make $40.8 million in 2026, but almost all of this is in an option bonus with less than $1 million available in savings. There is a similar contract structure for Jordan Love, who will earn $51 million, but his deal has a bit more meat on the bone for a potential $7.3 million gained if restructured.

However, both the Packers’ premier contracts already have a combined $170.9 million of “pre-kicked” mid-contract option bonuses. These are going to be absolute nightmares to deal with financially in 2027 & 2028, so adding more cap pain here is much ill advised.

Tier 6: Ask for Pay Cuts

Diggs is the outlier candidate, but he was discussed above in his own tier. Outside of Jenkins and Gary, who I believe will be cut and likely unwilling to discuss reduced compensation, there are not a lot of high-priced, low-producing names without future guaranteed money they’d be willing to release if the players balked at a pay cut outside of Nate Hobbs.

Hobbs is set to collect $9 million in cash in 2026, including a $6.25 million roster bonus due within three days of the start of the league year. It’s reasonable for the Packers to approach Hobbs before this bonus is due with a pay-cut-or-release scenario, with a restructured deal saving a few million. If he’s on the roster after Day 3, he’s sticking around in 2026.

Green Bay Packers guard Aaron Banks could get a restructured contract in 2026. | Mark Hoffman/Milwaukee Journal Sentinel / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images

Aaron Banks is set to earn $18.1 million, including a $9.5 million roster bonus. It’s a steep price tag but, as mentioned earlier, the Packers are potentially losing three starters on their offensive line from 2025 this offseason. If they approach Banks with a pay cut, the team must be willing to release him if he says “no” – something which may be daunting to pull off, but not entirely out of the question.

The last two candidates earning more than $9 million are both their expensive free agent signings from 2024. Xavier McKinney is due $13.5 million, including his $8.5 million bonus, and Josh Jacobs is due $11.5 million with no bonus. They are the ninth- and fifth-highest cash earners in 2026 at their respective positions, before the new 2026 money in free agency and the draft starts flowing.

McKinney just earned second-team All-Pro honors in 2025 after earning first-team All-Pro in 2024. The Packers don’t have a credible case to ask for a pay cut.

As a comparison point on Jacobs: In 2023, the Packers asked for a $5 million pay cut with former running back Aaron Jones, reducing his $16 million cash down to $11 million. Jacobs is scheduled to make only half-million more than Jones’ reduced amount, three seasons later.

For the sake of clarity and completeness, conversations around pay cuts for Jordan Love or Micah Parsons are non-starters. Love has $69.9 million remaining contract guarantees while Parsons has $90.8 million more guarantees coming. They will earn every penny of their contracts as the leaders of their respective sides of the football for the foreseeable future.

The Bottom Line

So, what does all this mean and what will they do?

In summary, the Packers are on track to be $33.1 million over the cap with only bringing back their minimum-contract exclusive-rights free agents and practice-squad players. They are likely to release Elgton Jenkins and Rashan Gary, and either release or get a massive pay cut from Trevon Diggs to get slightly positive in the cap. Extending Devonte Wyatt is a safe bet to add a little bit more.

From there, the Packers will need to choose which veterans to move on from, restructure or approach with pay cuts to give them extra space to bring back some of their pending free agents and extend some of their young stars.

Even with all this potential contract movement, I do not expect a large dip into free agency and, therefore, I do not expect the Packers to go overboard with additional veteran cuts or restructurings to create a giant pile of cap space.

I believe the Packers will aim to gain the maximum-allowed four compensatory picks for 2027 based on unrestricted free agents leaving this coming offseason.

The Packers desperately will need these picks after giving up two first-rounders for Parsons. The players likely to return compensatory picks if they sign elsewhere are Rasheed Walker, Malik Willis, Romeo Doubs, Quay Walker, Sean Rhyan and Kingsley Enagbare.

The Packers might bring back one or two from that group and let the others walk. Every eligible free agent the Packers sign cancels out a potential compensatory pick so, again, I believe the Packers will be frugal spenders and maybe instead seek recently cut castoffs who would not upset the compensatory formula.

SIGN UP FOR OUR FREE DAILY PACKERS NEWSLETTER