Why Are Packers Struggling? You Won’t Believe How Much Money Has Gone Down Drain

GREEN BAY, Wis. – You get what you pay for, as the saying goes.

Usually. But not always.

The NFL salary cap for this season inched past $300 million for the first time. Of the $301.2 million cap, the Packers have $59.9 million cap dollars on either injured reserve, the physically unable to perform list or the exempt list.

Toss in the $48.2 million cap dollars in dead money clogging the franchise arteries, the Packers have almost 36 percent of the salary cap consumed by players who will not be on the field for Sunday’s pivotal NFC North showdown against the Chicago Bears.

Looked at through another prism, the Packers have $95.1 million in average annual salary on injury lists, according to OverTheCap.com. When Josh Jacobs’ contract is added, that increases to $107.1 million. That’s almost $20 million more than the runner-up Panthers and about $3 million more than the rest of the NFC North combined.

And those figures don’t even include Aaron Banks’ grotesque four-year, $77 million contract. The injured guard’s deal is worth $19.25 million per season with a 2026 cap charge of just a bit more than $12.0 million.

It’s obscene, really. This isn’t necessarily a blame-somebody story, though some suspect roster decisions are part of it. Really, it’s just the harsh reality confronting the Packers’ painful start to the season.

The Big Ten

The Packers have 10 players on their roster with average annual salaries of at least $12 million. Here’s the list.

QB Jordan Love ($55.0 million): Love has started every game and played every snap despite taking a beating the first three games behind a porous offensive line. Due in part to surrounding issues, he ranks 25th out of 27 qualifying quarterbacks in completion percentage and 16th in passer rating.

Edge Micah Parsons ($46.5 million): Parsons had an All-Pro debut season before last year’s torn ACL. He has not started practicing and will miss the circle-them-on-the-calendar home games against the Bears and Cowboys.

WR Christian Watson ($23.0 million): After an injury-plagued start to his career, general manager Brian Gutekunst appears to have placed a winning bet on Watson, who is on pace for 1,400 receiving yards. He’s 10th in the league with 331 yards, ninth with a 16.6-yard average and tied for third with four touchdowns.

RT Zach Bako-Bewele ($22.0 million): After establishing himself as one of the best right tackles in the game, Bako-Bewele signed a big contract extension last year. He missed the end of last season with a partially torn patellar tendon and will wind up playing in essentially one game this season after a full tear.

LG Aaron Banks ($19.25 million): Banks was a dubious signing in free agency in 2025 but was decent when he played. This year, he’s played 22 snaps in four games and almost certainly will not play against the Bears due to knee and toe injuries.

TE Tucker Kraft ($18.75 million): Kraft got a huge contract extension before Week 1. He made an impressive return from last year’s torn ACL but hasn’t found his stinger in his comeback season. His 16.7 percent drop rate is the second-worst among tight ends.

DT Devonte Wyatt ($18.3 million): Wyatt got a contract extension this offseason and the team is looking for some payoff. In four games, he has 11 tackles with no sacks, quarterback hits or tackles for losses and, according to Pro Football Focus, only two pressures. His 2.8 percent pass-rush win rate is tied with teammate Jonathan Ford for 106th out of 123 defensive tackles with at least 37 pass-rushing opportunities, according to PFF.

S Xavier McKinney ($16.75 million): McKinney was first-team All-Pro in 2024 and second-team All-Pro in 2025. He has one interception this season and has played every snap.

WR Jayden Reed ($16.75 million): After missing only one game during his first two seasons, when he caught 109 passes and scored 14 touchdowns, he will have missed 25 games the last two seasons following a broken collarbone in 2025 and a neck injury in 2026.

RB Josh Jacobs ($12.0 million): Jacobs had a combined 2,882 rushing and receiving yards and 30 touchdowns during his first two seasons but remains on the exempt list serving what’s essentially a paid, indefinite suspension. Without him, the run game is the worst in the NFL.

Green Bay Packers running back Josh Jacobs leaves the Brown County Courthouse with attorney Clarence Duchac III on Sept. 10. | USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect

The Big Picture

Of those 10 players, only five are on the field. Of those five, Kraft and Wyatt have not played to expectations following season-ending injuries.

It’s not all Gutekunst’s fault. He didn’t make a blockbuster trade for Parsons knowing that he’d suffer a torn ACL. He didn’t give Bako-Bewele a huge contract extension knowing that he’d suffer career-changing knee injuries. He didn’t know that Reed would take a shot that would result in neck surgery. He didn’t know that Jacobs would get in an altercation with a woman.

Teams pay their best players top dollar because field-tilting players, as Ron Wolf would tell you, win games. Instead, Barryn Sorrell is starting for Parsons. Skyy Moore is starting for Reed. They took a flier on Kaleb Johnson in hopes of overcome the absence of Jacobs.

That doesn’t absolve Gutekunst of all blame, obviously. The next men up that he procured haven’t been nearly good enough. It would be impossible to replace Parsons, obviously, but the Packers invested a second-round pick in Anthony Belton and a third-round pick in MarShawn Lloyd, who haven’t been close to good enough in replacing Bako-Bewele and Jacobs, respectively. His mismanagement of the offensive line meant having to take a shot on 34-year-old Laken Tomlinson to replace Banks, who was a dubious signing at the time.

Dead money on the salary cap is the price of doing business at times. About 16 percent of Green Bay’s salary cap is invested on players no longer on the roster. The bulk of that, a little more than $17 million apiece, is tied up in Rashan Gary, who the Packers were happy to dump on the Cowboys after his contract extension didn’t pan out, and Kenny Clark, who was traded to Dallas as part of the Parsons trade.

So, because they’re playing with one hand tied behind their back, the Packers are 2-2 and haven’t played anything resembling a complete game this season.

Not that Sunday’s opponent, the reigning NFC North champion Bears, is the paragon of roster management, but they have a total of $54.9 million cap dollars tied up in dead money or reserve lists. The Packers have about double that at $108.2 million.

Are the Bears better than the Packers? Maybe, maybe not. Is the roster the Bears will field on Sunday better than the one that will be fielded by the Packers? Probably.

If Green Bay loses, the season will be in danger of being dragged down to the bottom of the bay by the tons of talent that’s on the sideline.

Here are two things that don't make sense.

One, the Packers' run game stinks but their play-action game is great.

Two, the play-action game is great but is used infrequently.

Thanks to @ASchatzNFL for making it make sense. ⬇️https://t.co/gLWxiEggGR
— Bill Huber (@BillHuberNFL) October 9, 2026

SIGN UP FOR OUR FREE DAILY PACKERS NEWSLETTER

Add us as a preferred source on Google