Comparing Salary Structures of Packers and Super Bowl Teams

The Green Bay Packers, as presently constructed, will rely on high priced-players more than most teams.

GREEN BAY, Wis. – Last offseason, there was a clamoring for Green Bay Packers general manager Brian Gutekunst to make a splash in free agency.

Instead, with four signings on Day 1, he created a tsunami.

With the Packers finishing one win short of the Super Bowl, there once again is a desire for the Packers to make the splash moves deemed necessary to get over the hump.

However, one look at the Packers’ roster compared to the Super Bowl rosters tells perhaps a different path to the championship. Generally, there are three ways to build a roster. One is to have a corps of eight or so high-priced players meant to tilt the field. The other is to build a roster with fewer high-priced players but with more experienced veterans in supporting roles. The third is the middle ground between those two polar opposites.

From that perspective, it’s interesting to compare Green Bay’s roster with the teams that competed in Sunday’s Super Bowl.

OverTheCap.com breaks down rosters by what it calls “texture.” By 2019 cap charges, the 32 highest-paid players in the league ($15.5 million to $30.7 million per season) are elite, players 33 through 160 ($8.4 million to $15.5 million) are high, players 161 through 320 ($4.45 million to $8.39 million) are middle and every other player not playing under his rookie contract falls under the low-priced category.

At one extreme were the Kansas City Chiefs, who were No. 1 in spending on low-priced veteran players and No. 3 on middle-priced veterans. On the other hand, they were No. 19 in elite players (with only receiver Sammy Watkins) and No. 31 on high-priced players (with only tight end Travis Kelce). The Chiefs’ rookie-contract spending ranked 29th, due in part to having only two of their first-round picks on the roster.

The San Francisco 49ers had a more balanced roster under executive of the year John Lynch. They ranked 18th on money spent on elite players (with only quarterback Jimmy Garoppolo) and seventh on high-priced players (left tackle Joe Staley, edge rusher Dee Ford, outside linebacker Kwon Alexander, cornerback Richard Sherman and defensive lineman Arik Armstead). With a sizable corps of mid- and low-priced veterans (13th and 14th, respectively), the 49ers ranked second in rookie-contract spending.

In a departure from Ted Thompson’s way of doing business, Gutekunst opened the franchise wallet for low-level veterans such as re-signing Marcedes Lewis, acquiring B.J. Goodson before the season and adding Jared Veldheer and Tyler Ervin during the season. Still, according to Over The Cap, the Packers ranked 26th in cap dollars going to low-priced veterans.

For most of the last several years, the Patriots rosters created by Bill Belichick overflowed with low-priced veterans, which provided experienced depth and quality special teams on a dynasty. For instance, the Patriots were No. 1 in midpriced veterans in 2018, No. 1 in low-priced veterans in 2017, and No. 1 in mid- and low-priced veterans in 2016 and 2015. On their way to winning the championship, it’s a philosophy the Chiefs used this season.

How will Gutekunst do it this offseason? A restructured contract for quarterback Aaron Rodgers will help in the short term. Bu turning $14.26 million of roster bonus into signing bonus, Gutekunst created $11.4 million of cap space for 2020. He’ll have to pay the piper down the road – a 39-year-old Rodgers will have a $39.85 million cap charge in 2022 – but that’s a problem for another day.

With a veteran quarterback and a win-now mentality, Gutekunst is all about “another day” thinking. In last year’s free-agent spending spree, Za’Darius Smith ($7.25 million cap), Preston Smith ($6.0 million) and Adrian Amos ($5.9 million) were midpriced veterans and Billy Turner ($4.25 million) was a low-priced veteran. Those cap numbers soar for 2020, with Za’Darius Smith ($17.25 million cap) and Preston Smith ($13.5 million) moving into the high-priced category, Amos ($9.65 million) moving toward the top of the midpriced category and Turner ($8.1 million) moving into midpriced.

As it stands for 2020, the Packers have one player in the elite bracket (Rodgers, with his slimmed-down $21.642 million cap charge) and six high-priced players (Za’Darius Smith, Davante Adams, David Bakhtiari, Preston Smith, Jimmy Graham and Corey Linsley). Based on current contracts and obviously subject to change, the Packers rank third in combined cap spending on elite- and high-priced players but are 30th in low-priced veterans (defensive tackle Dean Lowry, lineman Lucas Patrick).