Perhaps forgotten about in the chaos of the NFL offseason, the Packers released linebacker De’Vondre Campbell back in March with a post-June 1st designation. Now, on June 2nd, the Packers have officially gained $10.57 million in cap space for the 2024 season.
Coming into the 2024 offseason, Campbell still had three years left on his deal with the Packers and came with a $14.23 million cap hit. Had the Packers released Campbell without a post-June 1st designation, they would have had to absorb his entire $11-plus million dead cap hit on the 2024 salary cap.
However, by releasing Campbell with that designation, the Packers are able to spread the dead cap hit out over the next two seasons. So on the 2024 books, Campbell leaves behind a dead cap hit of only $3.65 million, which frees up almost $10.6 million for the Packers in cap space.
The benefit of using this designation is obvious: the significant amount of additional cap relief that the Packers receive. But the downside, is that in 2025, even though that will be Campbell’s second season playing elsewhere, he will still count towards the Packers’ salary cap as a $7.97 million dead cap hit.
Now official, this move gives the Packers $30.38 million in available cap space, according to Over the Cap. Some additional cap expenses that they’ll have coming down the pipeline include assembling the practice squad and the 52nd and 53rd players on the final roster, but in the grand scheme of the NFL salary cap, those hits are relatively minor.
Presumably, a decent portion of that newly freed-up $10.57 million in cap space is going to go towards covering the additional cap hit that will come with extending Jordan Love.
With a current cap hit of $12.75 million, the infusion of a hefty amount of new money into Love’s contract could increase his 2024 cap hit by about $3 million to $8 million, according to Ken Ingalls, depending on the size of the extension and how it is structured.
As of now, the Packers have the seventh-most cap space in football. The roster is pretty well set and outside of some back end roster movement, we won’t see many changes moving forward–or at least no significant ones.
Love’s extension is likely the last big cap move that will take place this offseason, still leaving the Packers positioned well from a cap perspective. Any unused cap space at the end of the 2024 season can be rolled over to the 2025 offseason.
