Understanding the Green Bay Packers’ needs and offseason plans first requires knowing where the roster stands exiting the 2021 season and entering 2022.
Going through position by position helps paint a clear picture of what GM Brian Gutekunst is facing this offseason, both from a personnel and salary cap standpoint.
Here’s our breakdown of the Packers’ roster along the offensive line, with players under contract for 2022, free agents, early thoughts on the position group and a unique cap perspective from Ken Ingalls, a CPA who studies the salary cap:
Roster analysis
Under contract (8): David Bakhtiari, Elgton Jenkins, Billy Turner, Jon Runyan, Josh Myers, Royce Newman, Cole Van Lanen, Michal Menet
Free agents (4): Lucas Patrick, Yosh Nijman (exclusive rights), Dennis Kelly, Jake Hanson (exclusive rights)
Early thoughts: The offensive line group looks strong, especially if Nijman and Hanson are retained on exclusive rights deals. Returning both would give the Packers 10 players under contract along the offensive line. Gutekunst has proven himself capable of both finding cheap veterans and drafting quality linemen, so expect him to use both avenues – free agency and the draft – to keep adding here. One big question: Will Turner return, or will the Packers see potential cap savings there?
Ken’s cap perspective
Like the running back position, this group is loaded with talented starting-caliber players locked up for several years. David Bakhtiari has the third-highest cap hit at $22.2 million. The Packers will absolutely restructure his contract to free up cap space this season, anywhere up to $9.3 million, but may want to go lighter here since they performed a full restructure to get under the cap in 2021 and compounding big restructures creates significant dead cap concerns. At some point his cap hits would exceed those of a franchise QB which is far from ideal. There is a lot of speculation the Packers could trade or cut Bakhtiari since he costs a lot and the team performed well during his 2021 absence, but this is a non-starter topic as it would cost the Packers more to move on than to keep him.
Billy Turner did a full restructure with void years last season and sits with the ninth-highest cap hit of $9.2 million. If the Packers keep Turner, they will push more of his money out again to create up to $3.5 million, or they could cut him and save $3.4 million. I won’t rule out the possibility of holding his deal past March 16th to either trade him and save the $3.4 million or utilize a “post June 1” cut designation to increase the cap savings to over $6 million.
Elgton Jenkins received a $2.6 million proven performance escalator raise for earning Pro Bowl honors earlier in his rookie contract and is heading into his final season but is still considered to be a cheap rookie deal. I don’t see an extension in the works before the season as it would add to the cap cost even with the PPE bump. The Packers could approach him to restructure his deal for $2.4 million of savings but he could refuse and petition for an extension instead.
Lucas Patrick and Dennis Kelly are unrestricted free agents, and I don’t expect either to return. Yosh Nijman and Jake Hanson will return as cheap exclusive rights free agents. Everyone else on the roster are on cheap deals. While not a big need I always expect the Packers to come away with offensive line reinforcement via the draft.
