Packers take an intriguing shift in strategy

Over the previous three offseasons, Green Bay Packers fans became familiar with terms like restructure, conversion to signing bonus, void years, and other deep salary cap knowledge. The pandemic had a huge impact on the cap in 2020 and 2021, which forced the Packers to utilize unusual methods to keep the roster together.

Last year, even after trading Aaron Rodgers, the management had to keep pushing money to the future just to operate. But after a year as one of the least expensive teams in football, the cap situation got much more comfortable in 2024.

And now, they are going back to their natural, conservative, "pay as you go" style.

At this moment, according to Over the Cap, the Packers have $24.5 million in cap space in 2024, even after adding safety Xavier McKinney and running back Josh Jacobs in free agency. It's the 11th most cap space in the league.

With that in mind, Green Bay opted for a more conservative approach, avoiding moving money to future years.

What they have done

The only move the Packers made with the exclusive intent of creating cap space was to restructure Rashan Gary's deal. They moved a $6.2 million roster bonus plus an amount of the base salary into a signing bonus, prorating that through the next four years. Gary's 2024 cap hit was reduced from $15.927 million to $11.147 million. That means the hit will go up $1.593 million in each of the following three years. Curiously, though, the team decided not to add a void year to create more immediate cap space.

The only other move made to keep a player on the roster under a lower cap hit was the adjustment on Preston Smith's contract. However, that was not a restructure, but just a $2.4 million paycut the edge defender agreed to take.

What they could have done

Last week was the final period for the Packers to convert some of their roster bonuses into signing bonuses to prorate cap hits. And they didn't make any of these moves. Rather, the Packers opted to have full hits from the roster bonuses of Jaire Alexander ($8 million), Preston Smith ($5.4 million), and Elgton Jenkins ($5.1 million).

Now, the team can theoretically still restructure their contracts, in addition to Kenny Clark’s, but only moving their base salaries into a signing bonus, moving much less money to the future. And the more likely scenario is that they won't touch these contracts whatsoever.

More indications

It's not only the players who have been kept that show the Packers new (old) approach. The new ones let that clear as well. Green Bay signed Xavier McKinney and Josh Jacobs to four-year deals, so they could have added a void fifth year to spread the signing bonus, helping the 2024 cap situation. They opted not to do it, though, doing a normal structure. They are backloaded contracts projecting an increased cap hit, but without fake years.

Even with the released players, the Packers didn't make many moves to kick the can down the road. The only post-June 1st release was linebacker De'Vondre Campbell. Aaron Jones was released as a normal cut, so the entire deal accelerated in 2024, leaving no dead money in 2025.

Left tackle David Bakhtiari was a different circumstance because he was already in the last year of his deal, and the contract didn't have future void years. The Packers could have tried to negotiate a new structure to add void years before the release and apply the post-June 1st designation as well, but it would be hard to pull off and it made little sense if the Packers are going back to their "pay as you go" approach.

The Packers changed their normal modus operandi because of the pandemic and Aaron Rodgers' final years, but that was just a momentary strategy. Those days are over, and Green Bay is back to the old days of respecting the salary cap, because they know how real it is.