The Green Bay Packers added another void year to Aaron Jones’ restructured contract to maximize the savings on the salary cap in 2023.
Tom Silverstein of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel confirmed the addition of a void year in 2027, meaning Jones’ deal now has void years in 2025, 2026 and 2027. The contract is for five total years – the maximum allowed for bonus proration – but voids following the 2024 season.
Per Ken Ingalls, the restructure slashed $5 million off Jones’ salary in 2023 and will end up saving the Packers $11.816 million on the salary cap this year.
Ingalls has all the details, including the year-by-year structure, on the new deal here:
Aaron Jones new reworked contract with the Packers
2023 Cash: $16M –> $11M
2023 Cap: $20.013M –> $8.197MTotal cap savings = $11.816M
Note: Packers could have just done a restructure to save $11.216M. Instead they shave $5M cash off the deal and get another $600K cap saved. pic.twitter.com/BecDTzCy2E
— Ken Ingalls – Packers Cap 💰 (@KenIngalls) February 17, 2023
Jones’ cap hit will be a little under $8.2 million in 2023, down from a little over $20 million originally. His cap hit goes up to $17.7 million in 2024 and will leave behind $6.6 million in dead cap when it voids in 2025. Altogether, it’s a two-year deal worth $32.5 million in cap room spread out over three years.
Adding the third void year in 2027 allowed the Packers to spread out $8.52 million of new signing bonus (roster bonus and base salary conversion) over five years. So while Jones will pocket the signing bonus money up front, the Packers will only count $1.7 million ($8.52 million divided by five years) on the cap in 2023. The team also slashed $5 million from his base salary to add additional savings on the cap and cash paid this year.
Overall, the Packers will pay Jones $23 million over the next two years.
Jones’ original deal (four years, $48 million) was signed in 2021. The Packers have restructured it twice (2022, 2023) in an effort to push money into the future and save money on the cap now.
In terms of cap space following the restructure, the Packers are now $4.7 million over the cap in 2023, per Over the Cap.
In 2024, the Packers could convert more of Jones’ base salary into a signing bonus to lower his cap hit but would add more money to the dead cap hit when the deal voids in 2025.
