The Packers cleared over $10MM of cap space by releasing Christian Kirksey and Rick Wagner several days ago. However, Green Bay is still about $13MM above the cap floor of $180MM, so there is plenty of work to do before the 2021 league year officially begins on March 17.
According to Rob Demovsky of ESPN.com, the Packers will almost certainly restructure quarterback Aaron Rodgers‘ contract in an effort to create additional cap room. The 37-year-old signal-caller is due a $14.7MM base salary in 2021, along with a $6.8MM roster bonus that will come due in March. Green Bay could convert some of that base salary into a signing bonus, a common maneuver that the club already executed with left tackle David Bakhtiari.
Of course, Rodgers said shortly after the Packers’ NFC Championship Game defeat in January that his future with the Packers was “uncertain,” which naturally led to plenty of speculation. Some reports suggested that his comments were an effort to secure a new contract that would represent a strong commitment from the franchise, whose selection of Jordan Love in the first round of the 2020 draft clearly irked Rodgers. And another report indicated that the comments — which Rodgers later tried to downplay — were not contractually-motivated and that player and team were headed for a bitter divorce.
Meanwhile, Packers brass has insisted that Rodgers is not going anywhere, and Demovsky says the club certainly could undertake a more comprehensive restructuring of Rodgers’ contract beyond a simple base salary-to-bonus conversion. Green Bay selected Love on the heels of three consecutive “down” years from Rodgers (by his standards), but in 2020, Rodgers was nothing short of sensational. He set career highs in completion percentage (70.7%), QBR (84.4), and TD passes (48), so it makes sense that the team would be amenable to a new contract that gives its superstar additional security (financially and otherwise).
Demovsky also names OLB Preston Smith and DE Dean Lowry as potential cap casualties.
The media really made a huge imaginary fiasco out of nothing in this case. They took one emotionally charged comment after a title game loss and blew it up with their uneducated “assumptions”, just to try to look smart and have something to talk about for a couple weeks. Rodgers isn’t going anywhere and never was. Although he can come off as a bit of a prima donna in some cases, he’s all about the Green Bay Packers and all these writers and reporters who speculated otherwise are just fools in need of a topic
That is exactly what the media in this country is known for.
*eyeroll*
Aren’t you speculating as well?
Did the media overblown this? Yes.
Should Rodgers have had an open discussion with reporters about how everything in life is temporary? No.
Woww they are really crying over that 20mil for Rodgers thats pocket change compared too what he should be earning.. Iff i was Green Bay id offer him an extension 4 yrs make him the 2nd or 3rd highest paid QB in the league behind Mahomes Take this yr salary convert 85% of it to a signing bonus give him a hefty bonus same for the 2022 season back load the crap out of it.. Mainly because they are a contender now.. Im surprised you dont see many contracts like in MLB in the NFL soo like Yelich he takes a 5mil pay cut every yr soo when he retires he see that money he getting paid for the next 20yrs i believe.. Orr the Bobby Bonilla contract
MLB is uncapped. NFL has a cap so you’re not going to see deferred money. Teams are set in their budget essentially with a cap. If Yelich wants $200m, the team can get him that number by deferring. Bonilla’s payments now are from a buyout of his last year. He didn’t take a deferral when he signed.
And Rodgers has another 3 un guaranteed years on his contract, it doesn’t make sense to give him a boatload more money. Restructure the payments, give him more now or guarantee some of it, rework it a bit to allow more 2021 cap space. He has 3 years $75m left (this doesn’t include his amortization of his signing bonus), if they made him a top paid QB now on a 4 year deal at 35m a year they’d essentially he adding 1 year and $65m to his deal. Not a good business move.
I thought they were 13 million over the cap before cutting Kirksey/Wagner not after
The highest number i recall was like $28 mil over some unofficial ’21 cap limit. That was before the Bak restructure or the Kirksey/ Wagner cuts.
Still a ways to go to break even, so to speak, before they can think about resigning their own free agents, outside FA’s or draft picks. I believe they’ll need to make a handful more moves (cuts, restructures, etc) to be able to do much of anything beyond signing the upcoming draft class.
Preston Smith has been talked about as being the next casualty. I think his cap number is $10M. His perf fell off a cliff last year, although he seemed to pick it up toward the end… good player when all is going well.
I read a little about Preston yesterday, and there was mention of possible attitude or work ethic issues (my gut says probably due to Gary coming on, and him losing snaps or being used in coverage..which is clearly not his strong suit..because of that).
I’m hoping they can come to a compromise on a reworked deal. I’m a little worried that if he gets cut, Z will take issue with it.
Both Lowry and Lancaster were listed as near certain cuts. Wont save a ton but every little bit helps, and opens 2 roster spots.
Pay da man – don’t let him out there too long. Next time when game is on the line pls give him the game to win or loose
2022 is the magic number they have an opt out then…they don’t need to add on to his contract if they just restructure his contract so money is moved to the 22 and 23 season he will be happy as a clam…that would guarantee they couldnt move on…the dude has said it over and over he wants to stay with them his whole career…he just doesn’t wanna be looking over his shoulder that was what his comment was about plain and simple
Don’t restructure unless you are able to get immediate help for receivers.
Site is named “Rumors” for a reason.
Headline and article is click bait.
All you all fall for the same trick over and over. Rodgers already has $$$ and should be giving back to the team and fan base vs sucking up an over percentage of cap. Missed 2 wide-open receivers on had to take field goal drives. Oops! OR. How about coach firing himself for not putting the ball in Rodgers hands to win the game? Arians let Brady do his thing last play of the half.
Write assessments – articles, comment and react to reality not click induced stupidity.
If you dislike this sight that much why are you on it…and quite often they are right about these rumors…i personally like sights like this one a place to find out whats going on in the sports world with out having to surf a bunch of sights as they also pass on information from other sources.