The new league year for the NFL starts in a month, and it’s possible no team will be as busy over the next month as the Green Bay Packers.
The team awaits Aaron Rodgers’ decision on his football future. But the quarterback is just the tip of the iceberg for general manager Brian Gutekunst and executive vice president Russ Ball.
The Packers are roughly $50 million over the 2022 salary cap and have 23 pending free agents, including 14 soon-to-be unrestricted free agents. And the team will probably have to make decisions on the immediate futures of nine other veteran players, including Rodgers. There are eight realistic cap casualty candidates for the cap-strapped Packers entering the offseason.
All in all, the Packers will probably need to make as many as 30 individual decisions on the future of players in the next month or so, and the decisions must fit within the framework of the salary cap. The team needs to find the delicate balance between shedding salary cap dollars and keeping together a talented roster.
Rodgers is the first domino, and it will fall soon. Once the Packers know his intentions, the team’s plan can go into action. He can either return on a new deal, retire from football or request a trade elsewhere.
The Packers must also decide what’s next for Davante Adams. Using the franchise tag would keep him out of free agency and provide an option to either trade for premium draft capital or extend the negotiating window for a new, long-term deal.
The Packers will have to make cuts, restructure contracts and extend contracts. And most of the heavy lifting needs to be done before the start of the new league year so the Packers can get under the cap in time.
Buckle up. A busy month of decisions awaits.
Unrestricted free agents
WR Davante Adams
LB De’Vondre Campbell
OL Lucas Patrick
WR Marquez Valdes-Scantling
CB Chandon Sullivan
CB Kevin King
TE Robert Tonyan
CB Rasul Douglas
OLB Whitney Mercilus
P Corey Bojorquez
DL Tyler Lancaster
OL Dennis Kelly
WR Equanimeous St. Brown
LB Oren Burks
Restricted free agents
WR Allen Lazard
Exclusive rights free agents
LB Krys Barnes
OL Yosh Nijman
S Henry Black
TE Dominique Dafney
OLB Chauncey Rivers
WR Malik Taylor
C Jake Hanson
OLB Randy Ramsey
Potential cap casualties
OLB Za’Darius Smith
OLB Preston Smith
WR Randall Cobb
S Adrian Amos
DL Dean Lowry
OL Billy Turner
TE Marcedes Lewis
K Mason Crosby
As Ken Ingalls told Packers Wire: “There are no absolutes – only choices. The Packers can bring back any player you want them to, they just can’t bring them all back.”
The Packers have a million different ways that they can put all these puzzle pieces together and it will be fascinating to watch how Gutekunst and Ball execute the plan.
Rodgers’ decision obviously represents a crossroads for the franchise. If he departs, a new era begins. If he returns, another run is possible.
But the quarterback is just one puzzle piece. The Packers have 30 other important decisions to make over the next month. The look of the 2022 team will be mostly decided over the next few weeks.
