Milwaukee Journal Sentinel - Packer Plus
Packers’ cap issues cloud Rodgers’ future
Green Bay — The most eventful Green Bay Packers offseason in 15 years begins now.
The Packers’ 13-10 loss to the San Francisco 49ers in an NFC divisional-round playoff game Saturday night starts the clock on general manager Brian Gutekunst’s monumental task of dealing with Aaron Rodgers’ future and a bloated 2022 salary cap.
Before he starts to address the 15 players set to become unrestricted free agents March 16, Gutekunst must settle the Rodgers question because the decision will have a seismic effect on how the team proceeds with its roster.
It is expected that Gutekunst and Rodgers will meet soon to discuss the quarterback’s future and whether their relationship is repaired enough to move on together. If it is, they still face the major hurdle of figuring out whether they can extend Rodgers’ contract without having to let go of many free agents and high-priced veterans.
Rodgers, 38, said earlier this season that he would not take a long time to decide whether he wants to play in 2022 and presumably that means whether he wants to play for the Packers as well. Before the Packers can even consider how to resolve their troublesome cap situation, they need to know whether Rodgers wants to return.
Cap number is $46 million
Rodgers has one year left on his contract and with a salary-cap number of $46 million, something has to be done to trim that number down because the Packers go into the offseason around $40 million over the cap and effectively $50 million over once you consider they only have 42 players under contract for the ’22 season.
(Eventually, that number will go up to 80, but only the 51 highest-paid count against the salary cap.)
The Packers removed the final year of Rodgers’ contract as part of the deal to convince him to play after a contentious ’21 offseason in which the quarterback was angered over slights he felt from Gutekunst, including not being offered a new
contract.
It may be in the best interest of the Packers to trade Rodgers because if they agree to pay him around $40-45 million a year — the going rate for top quarterbacks — the best they’ll probably be able to do is reduce his salary-cap number by $10 million.
Given they have made it to only one Super Bowl with him, it’s possible Gutekunst decides it’s just best to move on.
Long list of free agents
The hardest thing for them to do would be to both extend Rodgers and re-sign receiver Davante Adams, who will become the highest-paid player at his position in the NFL. If the Packers can’t re-sign him, they could put the franchise tag on him, but that would cost around $20 million and would make it next to impossible for them to re-sign any of their other free agents.
Among those players are All-Pro linebacker De’Vondre Campbell, cornerback Rasul Douglas, tight end Robert Tonyan, punter Corey Bojorquez, cornerback Chandon Sullivan, receiver Marquez ValdesScantling and offensive lineman Lucas Patrick.
What’s more, they would have to part ways with several high-priced players such as linebackers Za’Darius Smith and Preston
Smith, tight end Marcedes Lewis and defensive lineman Dean Lowry. It’s almost a lock they will part ways with receiver Randall Cobb and kicker Mason Crosby, regardless.
The deadline for designating a franchise player is March 8.
What if Rodgers is traded?
If they were able to trade Rodgers, Gutekunst would probably be able to get two or three first-round picks plus some players and then try to build around backup Jordan Love or another quarterback. Trading Rodgers would result in clearing $20 million off the salary cap.
Rodgers has the right to reject any trade the Packers make. Among the teams that could be interested are the Denver Broncos, Las Vegas Raiders, Seattle Seahawks, Houston Texans and Miami Dolphins.
Trading Rodgers would probably put the Packers in a rebuilding mode in ’22, same as they were in 2008 after Brett Favre retired and Rodgers replaced him. In this case, Gutekunst would be loaded with draft picks from the Rodgers trade to rebuild the roster and could even draft a quarterback to challenge Love.
Once the Rodgers decision is made, Gutekunst can go about dealing with Adams and the other free agents.
The unrestricted free agents are: Adams,
Tonyan, Sullivan, Campbell, Patrick, Douglas, Valdes-Scantling, Bojorquez, defensive lineman Tyler Lancaster, receiver Equanimeous St. Brown, linebacker Oren Burks, cornerback Kevin King, tackle Dennis Kelly, linebacker Whitney Mercilus and cornerback Isaac Yiadom.
The lone restricted free agent is receiver Allen Lazard.
The highest salary-cap numbers among those under contract in ’22 belong to Za’Darius Smith ($28.1 million), tackle David Bakhtiari ($22.7 million), Preston Smith ($19.75 million), nose tackle Kenny Clark ($20.9 million), safety Adrian Amos ($11.9 million) and tackle Billy Turner ($9.2 million).
Making things worse for the Packers is the fact that they restructured many of their players’ contracts to get under the cap this past season and there’s nothing more they can gain with restructure.
Some of the cap numbers, like cornerback Jaire Alexander’s $13.29 million and guard Elgton Jenkins’ $2.16 million, can be reduced with contract extensions.
Gutekunst will start the offseason by signing many of his practice squad players to “futures” contracts, all of which are minimum wage but will count against the cap until the Packers reach 51 players under contract.