Father | Husband | CPA | Packers Shareholder | Nerd | Cap Guy. I analyze Green Bay Packers salary cap & roster. Help explain the dollars & sense of the team.
Packers 2024 Salary Cap - 4/24/2024:
Pre-Draft Version:
🟨Current Space: $21.8M
🟥Space After Draft & Campbell June 1: $28.3M
🟦Effective Space: $15.0M
How can the Packers use this $15M?
1⃣Extend Jordan Love - he is already on the books for $12.8M today - an estimate for his
The Packers traded Aaron Rodgers, let 8 starters walk in free agency, had no money to sign any significant free agents, had 12 draft picks make the roster (11 the prior year), started over on special teams, lost their All-Pro LT week 1...
...and got better in 2023!
#GoPackGo
Trade two 1st round picks (plus) to get Khalil Mack
Pay $91M over 4 years
Win zero playoff games
Trade away for next season 2nd & 6th round picks
Eat $24M dead cap charge on the way out
Not exactly an ideal payoff for the Chicago Bears with their Khalil Mack investment. Yikes.
Tom Brady's parting gift to the Tampa Bay Buccaneers - $32 million of backloaded contract dead cap to hit their books over the next 1-2 years while he isn't even on the team.
Packers fans can expect to see a LOT more in 2024:
-Hand on the ground 4-man defensive fronts
-Press man cornerback coverage
-Roaming center field free safeties
Basically, the complete opposite of what we've been used to.
Brian Gutekunst, Packers GM, Genius
1⃣Allow Jets to talk to Rodgers before deal in place
2⃣Leak Packers favorable narratives to media
3⃣Know Rodgers will have irresistible urge to "Set the Record Straight" and publicly over-commit his desires to play for the Jets
4⃣Wait
5⃣Profit
Imagine being upset the Green Bay Packers drafted a large, athletic, physical, productive, healthy, and young dude with a ton of upside at a premium position of need.
Can’t be me!
The 2023 Salary Cap is $224.8M.
Today the Green Bay Packers played & won a football game with $118.5M (53%) of cap space unavailable on the field.
Dead: $59.34M
PUP: $3.25M
IR: $1.03M
Bakh: $21.34M
Jaire: $10.76M
Jones: $8.20M
Jenkins: $6.97M
Campbell: $5.53M
Watson: $2.10M
Packers Media: Are you excited to finally be able to run the Matt LaFleur offense?
Matt LaFleur: I don't know what you mean by that 😏
Also Matt LaFleur:
Green Bay Packers - Free Agent Pitch Transcript
Q:How much will you pay?
A:Less
Q:How's the weather?
A:2.5 months are nice
Q:How do WI taxes compare?
A:10th worst
Q:Any clubs or nightlife?
A:Kwik Trip is open 24 hours
Q:Why Green Bay?
A:Aaron Rodgers
Q:Where do I sign?
A:📜
The Packers spent 2 second round picks on Christian Watson and so far they are using him as an expensive replacement for Tyler Ervin, running mostly jet sweeps and WR screens.
The GB Packers are 1st in both points scored & touchdown passes in the NFL.
But I was told they NEEDED to:
-Draft a WR
-Sign Antonio Brown
-Trade for Robbie Anderson
-Trade for Emmanuel Sanders
-Trade for AJ Green
-Trade for Will Fuller
-Trade for OBJ
-Trade for Allen Robinson
Raiders signed Davante Adams for $12.18M cap cost, gave up 1st & 2nd round picks
Packers signed De'Vondre Campbell, Rasul Douglas, Robert Tonyan, Jarran Reed for a combined $11.78 cap cost, drafted Quay Walker & 1/2 Christian Watson
This is a better football team without Adams
Packers up 7 points with 6:10 left after a 4th down redzone stop.
Their next 2 drives combined for -15 yards.
1 completion: 4 yds
1 run: 2 yds
3 incompletions
2 penalties: -10 yds
1 sack: -11 yds
Say what you want on special teams, the offense wasn't good enough in the moment.
The Packers have the following WRs & TEs under contract next season for $12.3M cap hit... total.
Christian Watson
Jayden Reed
Romeo Doubs
Dontayvion Wicks
Malik Heath
Samori Toure
Luke Musgrave
Tucker Kraft
Ben Sims
Bo Melton & Henry Pearson will also be back on minimum deals.
Being over 6’4” and able to run a sub 4.4 40 doesn’t mean much as a NFL WR if you are lacking in-air ball skills, reliable hands, or physical contested catch ability.
Packers need some extra from Christian Watson.
But remember that one time he did a backflip after scoring a TD?
𝗥𝗨𝗠𝗢𝗥:
Sources close to the
#Jets
, tell us that QB Aaron Rodgers is "pissed" they were selected to appear on Hard Knocks.
The team has a lot of work to integrate the future HOF'er into the offense and he would prefer "to limit the distractions."
Ages of the Packers players in this photo:
Love: 25
Heath: 23
Reed: 23
Wicks: 22
Watson: 24
Doubs: 23
Kraft: 23
Musgrave: 23
Very excited to watch this young core grow together!📈📈📈
The Packers have paid Jaire Alexander $45,326,000 (minus some per-game and workou bonuses) and have only accounted for $17,870,000 on their salary cap.
The $27,456,000 difference is dead cap if he's gone in 2024. So unless things go nuclear, expect Jaire back in Green Bay, OK?
I’m told the Packers are canceling Wednesday practice and will instead conduct 90 minutes of lower body stretches followed by 40 minutes of drinking Gatorade to combat future hamstring injuries & cramps.
Davante Adams:
🔹Received a 3 year, $67.8M deal ($22.6M APY)
🔹Disguised as a 5 year, $140.2M deal ($28M APY)
There is zero chance he makes it to years 4 & 5 on the deal - these years are intentionally bloated to artificially boost him up to claim the "highest paid WR" title.
Remember when Justin Fields said the speed of the NFL game was “actually kind of slow to me” after playing one pre-season game?
Good times 😂
I bet he wishes this ass-beating by Tampa Bay would “speed up” so he can get off the field in one piece.
I continue to be baffled as to each week we hear Head Coach Matt LaFleur continue to say they need to run the ball more, or need to get Aaron Jones more involved earlier, or need to stay committed to the run like he isn't the guy holding the call sheet and radioing in the calls.
Aaron Rodgers, great player when healthy
David Bakhtiari, great player when healthy
Aaron Jones, great player when healthy
Packers trying to get younger and minimize the "when healthy" monikers on their roster.
40 year old QB, Million knee surgeries, 30 year old RB are high
Sure are a lot of people who spent all last year slamming the Packers selection of AJ Dillon in the 2nd round now jumping on the AJ Dillon HypeTrain Bandwagon 😏
All offseason I heard losing Tight Ends Robert Tonyan & Marcedes Lewis to the Bears was going to cause significant issues for this Packers team.
After watching 60 minutes of football I don’t think I saw or heard anything of significance either player did for the Bears today.
The offsides call against the Chiefs is such a non-story being fueled by the team’s ridiculous public outrage and outbursts.
Don’t line up offsides, don’t get penalized.
The Denver Broncos did not draft & pay a $12.6 million signing bonus to Patrick Surtain II so they could turn around and trade him to the Green Bay Packers in an attempt to aquire Aaron Rodgers, losing cash and cap in the process.
These conversations can end please & thank you.
Tom Brady did not appear on the Buccaneers' injury report even once all season long.
So either the team purposefully masked a serious injury by withholding injury reporting data to the league, or his knee boo boo was no big deal.
Either way, I'm not impressed.
Question I get a lot: How are the Packers going to be able to afford to extend Jaire Alexander next year with their cap issues?
Answer: An extension helps their cap. The team could make Jaire the highest paid CB in the league and easily save over $6M on the cap as a result.
Romeo Doubs cooks his opponent off the line and is WIDE open. Too bad the ball went to the other side of the field to Winfree (incomplete) as this was going for 6 - you can see Doubs’ frustration as he knew he was taking that one to the house.
Translating what I heard Brian Gutekunst say today:
Love - About to get paid
Jaire - No interest in trading
Jones - Want him back, need to tweak his deal
Bakh - He's gone
A stunner: Patriots are releasing four-time Pro Bowl cornerback Stephon Gilmore, who was eligible to come off the Physically Unable to Perform List after Week 6, source tells ESPN.
Attempt to clarify the Packers & Rodgers salary cap:
1⃣Packers owe Rodgers $0 cash
2⃣Rodgers counts $40.3M on the Packers salary cap in 2023 - this is past cash paid, not yet capped (dead cap)
3⃣Rodgers is "off the books" in 2024 - counts $0 on the Packers cap after this season
Reasons why Aaron Rodgers returns to Green Bay in 2023:
🔹$59,465,000 guaranteed salary
🔹Can say he played until his 40th birthday milestone
🔹Doesn't want to share same Hall of Fame stage in Tom Brady's shadow
🔹Rodgers can effectively block any trade
🔹Packers can't cut him
I read this as an $8M salary cap for 2021 ($8M in cap savings) and pushes $3.25M into 2022 as dead cap.
The Packers get the same cap savings as if they cut Preston Smith straight up with the added bonus of having him play.
Well done Packers!
A breakdown of the adjusted contract for
#Packers
OLB Preston Smith, who now sticks in GB:
— $8M salary ($200K workout bonus, $300K in 46-mans, $6.5M signing bonus, $1M base.)
— $4.4M available in sack incentives, so he can eclipse the $12M he was set to earn before the redo.
If Rodgers is back as the Packers starting QB in 2023, I just don't see how Jordan Love remains on the roster.
His agent will get him to another team. Nobody should reasonably expect Love to be a backup for 4 years, including Gutekunst. Love needs to play, doesn't matter where.
So far, Jordan Love has earned $5M of incentives to increase his 2024 contract cash up to $11M.
At the end of the day, it won't matter since the Packers are about to rip up his contract and make Love one of the highest paid players in the league. Only affects the new money calc.
The Packers should probably acquire:
🔹A WR to replace Davante Adams
🔹A WR to replace MVS
🔹A WR to be the guy who should have been signed in 2021 but wasn’t because Rodgers wanted Randall Cobb
🔹A WR to develop to replace Randall Cobb next year
The Packers have some ENOURMOUS contracts for 2022 with 4 cap hits exceeding $20 million on the books:
Aaron Rodgers: $39,852,000
David Bakhtiari: $22,768,015
Za'Darius Smith: $20,750,000
Kenny Clark: $20,650,000
Over $104 million for only 4 guys is... troubling.
The Green Bay Packers did very well in this trade for Aaron Rodgers.
Figured a 13/15 swap could be on the table as a sweetener.
But the crown jewel is having only a 65% threshold for snaps played to elevate the 2024 pick from a 2nd to a 1st is just an excellent job. Well done!
Am I the only person not stressing about replacing the production of Robert Tonyan in this offense?
He had 18 rec & 204 yds through 8 games.
Josiah Deguara should have the ability to pick up these downfield yards this year, especially with Dominique Dafney back in the lineup.
David Bakhtiari tore his ACL on December 31, 2020.
Typical recovery window to get back to action is said to be 10-12 months.
It has been 10.5 months.
Bakhtiari is listed at 6-4 and 310 lbs, more than your typical athlete.
Nothing to panic about yet.
Jets calling up the Packers asking if they can alter the terms of the Rodgers trade and call it a simple 2nd so they can have free use of their 1st round pick.
Gutey:
Yes, the Packers can afford to trade for Davante Adams. His contract would be very cheap for them as he is due only $24M over the next 2 years ($12M per year).
No, the Raiders likely have zero interest in eating his $31M of dead cap & paying Adams $43M for only 1 year of play.
The Packers are on a 5 game winning streak and are now eligible to return both Marquez Valdes-Scantling & Dominique Dafney from Injured Reserve.
Also David Bakhtiari has served the minimum 6 weeks on the PUP list and could be in the fold as well.
Thanks for the memories Aaron Rodgers!
I'll never forget watching his 2007 Dallas breakout game at Dooley's Pub in Eau Claire. He had the entire bar chanting, "🗣️Aaron Rodgers! 🗣️Aaron Rodgers!"
It signaled the start of a new era in Green Bay, now we enter into the next one.