Deal with Bakhtiari goes easy on salary cap for next 2 years

Green Bay — The Green Bay Packers won't have to worry about left tackle David Bakhtiari breaking the salary-cap bank this year and next.

That fact made it easier for the Packers to make him the highest-paid offensive lineman in the NFL and the first to receive a signing bonus of $30 million, according to a league source with knowledge of the deal.

The four-year extension includes $92 million of “new money” (the amount added on top of what he was already making this year) and depending on incentives could get as high as $105.5 million.

The reason the contract was doable on the Packers' part is that it is structured such that Bakhtiari's salary-cap number goes up only a little this year and is extremely manageable next year when the league salary cap is supposed to be way down (minimum $175 million) due to COVID-19-related lost revenue.

The way the contract is structured, Bakhtiari's salary-cap number of $14.7 million will increase to $16.25 million, which is very manageable and leaves the Packers with about $5 million remaining this year. Bakhtiari meanwhile pockets $30 million, so both sides are happy.

The real key is that '21 number.

The contract will read that Bakhtiari's salary-cap number next year is $19.45 million, but $11.07 million of that is a March roster bonus, which can be converted into a signing bonus. Since signing bonuses are prorated over the length of the contract, only one-fourth of that bonus counts in '21.

Thus, his cap number in '21 should be a very manageable $11.143 million, if the Packers convert that roster bonus into a signing bonus.

Compare that to Aaron Rodgers' 2021 cap number of $36.3 million, Za'Darius Smith's $20.75 million, Davante Adams' $16.6 million or Preston Smith's $16 million and it's very reasonable.

The Packers eventually will have to pay the piper, however.

In later years, the cap numbers will skyrocket, but the Packers are counting on the cap jumping considerably once the pandemic is under control and new television deals are negotiated. If 2022 is a normal year, they should be able to handle Bakhtiari's cap numbers; if not they'll be hurting.

In both '22 and '23, Bakhtiari has $9.5 million March roster bonuses that the Packers will have to pay in order to keep their left tackle.

By the end of '22, Bakhtiari will have earned $62.8 million, the source said.

DAN POWERS / USA TODAY Packers offensive tackle David Bakhtiari’s deal contains $92 million of “new money,” but the structure of the deal helps the team.