Three restructured contracts provided almost $28 million in salary cap relief and put the Green Bay Packers a little over $6 million under the 2023 salary cap with about two weeks before the start of the new league year.
The Packers restructured deals for running back Aaron Jones, cornerback Jaire Alexander and outside linebacker Preston Smith – three foundational players on the roster – to create the salary cap relief.
According to Over the Cap, the Packers are now $6.43 million under the cap.
In all three restructures, the Packers converted base salary and roster bonuses into signing bonuses and added a void year to maximum the salary cap savings in 2023.
Jones’ restructuring saved roughly $11.8 million. Restructures for Alexander and Smith saved approximately $9.5 million and $6.7 million, respectively. Add it up, and the Packers shaved $27.96 million off the cap in three relatively easy moves.
Having convertible roster bonuses in place with Jones, Alexander and Smith gave the Packers easy levers to pull to dig out of the salary cap hole.
More space can be created in this fashion. Deals for Kenny Clark, David Bakhtiari, De’Vondre Campbell and Rasul Douglas, for instance, can all be restructured to push cap commitments into the future and create space in 2023.
More work needs to be done. While the Packers are now under the cap ahead of the new league year, the team will need to pay for signing free agents (including a restricted tender for Yosh Nijman), the incoming draft class, next year’s practice squad and provide an emergency fund for the regular season. In fact, Ken Ingalls has the Packers at around $13 million over the cap in effective terms, meaning more cap-saving moves will be required over the next few weeks and months.
