Even With Savage’s Restructure, Packers’ Cap Troubles Nearing End

The Green Bay Packers restructured safety Darnell Savage’s contract to create about $5.46 million of cap space.

Author:
Bill Huber
Publish date:
May 2, 2023 12:52 PM EDT

In this story:

GREEN BAY, Wis. – When Aaron Rodgers’ contract is off the books next year, the Green Bay Packers will return to something approaching fiscal normalcy.

Not yet, though.

The Packers on Tuesday restructured the contract of safety Darnell Savage. According to ESPN.com’s Rob Demovsky, Savage’s fifth-year option of a fully guaranteed $7.901 million was reduced to the league-minimum $1.08 million. The difference was turned into bonuses and prorated for cap purposes with the addition of four void years.

The $5.46 million in cap savings are important, including funding Jordan Love’s extension and creating room for any potential veteran additions.

However, as with everything, there is a cost. That $5.46 million doesn’t just disappear into the ether. With Savage entering his final season under contract, that money will be dumped onto the 2024 salary cap, when he could be in the starting lineup for some other franchise.

It’s a similar result to that of safety Adrian Amos. Via two contract restructures and the addition of void years, Amos’ cap number for 2023 is $7.95 million. That’s the seventh-highest figure on the team – for a player no longer on the roster.

Green Bay’s highest cap charge belongs to Rodgers, a whopping $40.3 million – about $39 million more than he’ll cost the New York Jets this season.

General manager Brian Gutekunst said during the draft that he’s “very excited” to get past the carousel of restructures needed to get in compliance with the cap but prevented any big-money additions to the roster. Getting Rodgers’ contract off the books will help, as will having Love with a lower cap number in 2024 than he would have had via the fifth-year option.

“I think you always want to have as many avenues to help your football team as you can,” Gutekunst said. “I think over the past three years or so, as we’ve pushed things out down the road to help the team in those particular years chase a championship.

“At some point, you’ve got to figure that out. I think this will help us do that. It’s not everything. It’s not like we’re getting clear of everything, but it’ll certainly help us next year. But, yeah, we’re excited to kind of move passed this particular piece and have some assets for next year.”

With Savage’s reduced number, Green Bay is about $17.39 million under the cap, according to OverTheCap.com. Love’s extension, once the specifics hit the ledger, presumably will take a bite out of the number. Plus, it will cost about $4.79 million to sign a 13-man draft class that included first-round pick Lukas Van Ness and a total of three selections in the top 50.