The Green Bay Packers have restructured the transactions of David Bakhtiari, Adrian Amos, Preston Smith and Billy Turner, re-signed Aaron Jones and will soon extend Za’Darius Smith’s contract. Davante Adams will eventually get a new deal.
The last big decision the Packers face as the free agency approaches? Aaron Rodgers.
Specifically, Rodgers’ contract and how the Packers want to use it or not.
Expanding Smith’s agreement, as Tom Silverstein of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reported on Sunday, will likely create enough space to get Jones’ new deal below the salary cap by the start of the league’s new year on Wednesday. Packers could create even more space by expanding Adams, which enters the final year of his contract in 2021.
But no contract gives the Packers more potential buying power in the free agency than the quarterback’s transaction.
According to Over the Cap, the Packers could create up to $ 14-17 million in cover space by restructuring or expanding the Rodgers deal, which includes a $ 6.8 million list bonus and a base salary of $ 14.7 million. million dollars in 2021. Both amounts can be turned into a signing bonus to create ceiling space, or the Packers could add years and money to the business to reduce their ceiling hit in 2021.
Will the Packers push the money forward in Rodgers’ deal and go to him all year, using the ceiling space created to track down a free agent or two? Or will the Packers leave the business, knowing that Rodgers is owed huge sums of money in the years to come and will keep his options financially open to the quarterback position after 2021?
Rodgers’ maximum share will already increase to almost $ 40 million in 2022. Adding more money to the transaction – which is three years old – is a risky plan for a team with a lot of money already employed at the ceiling next year. The Packers may feel comfortable with their current cap situation and not want to reach Rodgers’ consent. He might be content to sit back and wait for any bargains after the first waves of free agency.
It is also possible that Rodgers’ business is the team’s asset. If the team enters a large free agent or two, the Packers can quickly create the capacity space needed to do something by redoing Rodgers’ transaction.
A restructuring or extension could give the 2020 NFL MVP the 2021 financial commitment he wants, an added bonus to changing his deal now. But every dollar pushed into the future also complicates a potential transition to Jordan Love, and the Packers may not be ready to close that door.
Brian Gutekunst and Russ Ball did an admirable job solving the problems of the team’s caps without destroying the list. The core of this team remains. Corey Linsley is likely to leave, but he may be the only key player to leave. This is an incredible result for a team that has been handcuffed to the cover that entered the moon.
With much of the work in the rearview mirror, packers need to decide whether leaving the Rodgers deal alone or using it to create free agency spending options is the best plan for 2021 and beyond. It’s a complicated, multi-layered decision. And it’s the biggest thing left for the Packers to do.