Packers Have Real Opportunity with Rare Draft Capital

GREEN BAY, Wis. – The Green Bay Packers wrestled with salary cap problems last offseason. They’re wrestling with cap problems this offseason. And they’ll be wrestling with cap problems next offseason.

The best way to beat the cap is with an influx of young, talented players who are on cheap rookie contracts. Only one team has more draft picks in 2022 than Green Bay, which has 11. Not only do the Packers have additional first- and second-round picks following the trade of Davante Adams, but they’ve got two free-agent compensatory selections (fourth and seventh rounds) and a seventh-rounder from last summer’s trade of cornerback Ka’dar Hollman.

Highlighted by two picks in the first round and two more in the second, Green Bay has more draft capital than most teams. One way to view that is through the amount of money it can spend to sign its draft picks.

Each pick is worth a specific dollar amount, from No. 1 ($7,539,165 in Year 1 cap, according to Spotrac) to No. 262 ($726,604). Adding up the dollar amount for each draft pick paints a picture of the potential value of a draft.

As broken down at OverTheCap, the Packers’ rookie pool is about $13.63 million. That’s the total value, in Year 1 salary cap dollars, of Green Bay’s 11 picks. That’s obviously subject to change; picking up the 22nd overall selection from the Raiders, for instance, shifted $2.74 million from the Raiders’ rookie pool to the Packers’ ledger.

Based on rookie dollars, Green Bay’s upcoming draft class is the seventh-most valuable in the NFL. That means, especially compared to usual years when the Packers are picking toward the bottom of every round, they’ve got a real opportunity to add a several high-quality – and, importantly, inexpensive – players. That’s hugely important because, even without Adams’ massive contract, the Packers have one of the most top-heavy rosters in the NFL.

By annual salary, Aaron Rodgers ranks No. 1 among quarterbacks, Aaron Jones is No. 7 among running backs, David Bakhtiari is No. 2 among offensive tackles, Kenny Clark is No. 7 among defensive tackles, Preston Smith is No. 25 among edge defenders, De’Vondre Campbell is No. 11 among off-the-ball linebackers, Jaire Alexander (on the franchise tag) is No. 14 among cornerbacks and Adrian Amos is No. 16 among safeties.

A presumptive contract extension for Alexander could vault him to No. 1 among cornerbacks. If Elgton Jenkins gets a contract extension, he’d likely join the group of nine guards who are making at least $10 million per season. Looking a bit further down the line, an extension for outside linebacker Rashan Gary won’t be cheap, either.

Having great players, of course, is great. Great players win games. Paying for them all is a challenge. The inevitable byproduct is filling out the roster with a bunch of minimum-wage players. And those players, if they’re just roster filler, can lose games.

With four of the first 59 picks, the Packers have a chance to add some immediate difference-makers. With seven picks thereafter, they’ve got a chance to flesh out the roster by tapping into perhaps the deepest draft in NFL history. Remember, the NCAA gave players an additional year of eligibility due to COVID, so last year’s draft was historically weak. This year, it’s historically strong. That means general manager Brian Gutekunst has a real opportunity to upgrade all three phases without adding even more stress to his stretched-too-thin salary cap.