The Packers have Aaron Rodgers back, but things are still up in the air with their other star player. Packers wide receiver Davante Adams has informed team brass that he will not play on his franchise tag (Twitter link via NFL.com’s Ian Rapoport). 
While Rodgers scored a new four-year, $200MM deal to become the highest paid player in league history, Adams was cuffed to a one-year, $20.5MM franchise tag. That’s a 20% bump from last year’s tag of $16.8MM, but still far short of the guaranteed dollars he could have on a large, multi-year extension. The Packers have until July 15 to hammer out such an arrangement with Adams. If they don’t, they’ll have him under contract, but Adams could also go the Le’Veon Bell route — hold out and see what shakes in the fall.
Last time they talked, Adams pushed for a megadeal to top DeAndre Hopkins‘ $27MM/year contract. It’s a steep asking price, but the two-time All-Pro wide receiver has done his best to justify it. Last year, Adams ranked second in the league in catches (123), third in receiving yards (1,553), and fifth in receiving touchdowns (11).
The Packers may have to carve out some additional cap room to accommodate a new deal for Adams, though they could also work some magic to push much of the obligation to 2023 and beyond. Potential cap casualties include edge rusher Za’Darius Smith ($15.3MM in savings), outside linebacker Preston Smith ($12.5MM in savings), and Randall Cobb ($6.9MM in savings).
Maybe Rodgers will take less money to get the weapons that he wants so badly. Haha
1) I’m guessing the packers get a deal done.
2) after seeing bell massively flop on his dare to not play under the tag, I’m calling that bluff all day long. WRs only have so many years to cash in and get paid. He’s not turning down 20 million to play one year of football. GB knows it and he does too. Just trying to put pressure on GB to get a deal done.
Right. And Tom Brady is retiring.
Still running with the 4 year $200M deal, huh?
Why are they still reporting Rodgers’ 4 year deal? Rodgers already stated himself that the contract was not signed and the terms were not correct. I love trade rumors, but the willing ignorance on this topic is pretty sad
And you believe Rodgers? He lies as much as his ex President.
Packers reporters have also all acknowledged that there’s no deal yet.
If there was a deal, and it was signed, its curious that nobody has reported any specifics of it. So naturally people on here just blindly go with “$50 million cap hit per year” as if GB management (or any other team..or a fifth grader..) would be dumb enough to offer a contract (to anybody, regardless of the cap limits) where every penny is straight salary.
If the deal was finalized, every sports outlet would have reported the numbers 100 times by now. The Packers haven’t even said anything.
Exactly. Which is why I stated that it’s lazy (if not incompetent) for trade rumors to continue stating that he signed a $200 million deal when every reputable journalist knows that’s not the case
Which ex President?
He’s assuming that Rodgers is a Trump fan boy.
My guess would be all of them, to include our current one.
Ya think maybe Rodgers may lean on Mgmt a little about this?
Wahhhhh! Wahhhh! I’m one of the best wide receivers in the sport, and I have one of the best QB’s in NFL history, but I don’t want to play for one year while being paid 20 and a half million dollars, (more then 20 people might makee working each for 20 years) wahhh, feel sorry for me public. I hope that the Packers say “Alright, don’t play then.” And then this little stunt he’s trying to pull blows up in his face, does he not realize, that he is set realisticly to be the only weapon at Rodgers hand? He’s gonna get the ball alot.
How does him not playing help the Packers?
It does’nt.
Why shouldn’t he try to get as much money as he can? Quarterbacks do it all the time. This is his last big contract whereas a quarterback can sign a huge deal in his 30’s. Sitting out is a huge risk but Adams deserves to be paid like a top 2 receiver
Where has he asked for sympathy?
He’s trying to make as much money as he can. What exactly is wrong with that?
Personally I’m lovin this! Rodgers covers 50 million give or take, Adams sees this! So why play on a tag offering a top 5 contract? “Show me the money TOO”. They know Rodgers wants Adams and they will basically pay whatever he’s asks. That’s not a question.
So get the highest receiver contract say 23 million per year! that way they can count 73 million between them on a 208 million dollar cap! Then GB will need to go to the USFL or PS School 35 for everyone else on the roster!
Its a water shed moment in the NFL. The league went decades without a cap and money is no object. So get rid of the cap and pay even more! Naturally a family of four will need to pay out 1,000-1,500 dollars or more to go see a game at their billion dollar stadiums but why not! The economy is booming?
If you just understood anything about how a salary cap works, or how management structures contracts you might not appear so clueless.
I’ve said this like 30 times already today..there is absolutely no way Rodgers new deal (when it actually gets signed) will count $50 million (if that’s even the AAV) against the cap.
I shouldn’t also have to say that whatever Adams ends up signing for won’t be the cap number either, but for you (and some others) I’m almost certain I do.
The items that have been reported recently on Rodgers future contracts (’23 / ’24) you may want to revise your way of thinking. I have no idea if any of it is true, but whew, big big numbers.
What I’m seeing is a cap hit for ’22 of $28.5 mil, which is much lower than the previous known number of $46.7 (which I and a couple others tried to tell people would be significantly lower, but of course nobody would believe without proof), and also much lower than the “reported” $50 mil everyone magically bought into when the new deal was leaked a week ago, that it wasn’t just the AAV of the deal, but the exact cap hit each year.
As for the ’23 number, it looks like $31.6, which isn’t far from the $28.5 for this year.
The ’24 number I found is $40.7. Big number, but what I bet you and many others are forgetting (or just refusing to even consider) is the reported big jump in overall team salary cap due to new TV deal.
The only part that concerned me was the report of basically a huge balloon payment type hit if he retires. The thing is, I don’t see them not (again) restructuring somehow, if that scenario presents itself.
He could complete screw over the Packers by playing a year or two and retiring ala Brees. So let’s say dude at age 40 gets mangled and he’s done – Pack have a big time cap issue.
’22 cap hit IS lower. ’23 is $31.6M, ’24 is $40.7M, ’25 $49.3M, ’26 is 53,4M. No matter how you stack it, that’s a lot of cheddar for a guy who likely won’t see the last few years.
The breakdown of each year for dead cap is a boatload, I don’t care if you keep pounding that dead horse that “salary cap is going up”, no matter what you say, $38M (last year) or $76M (last two years) is A LOT of dead cap, even if the cap some how jumps to $300M.
Didn’t Brees rework his deal upon retirement to drop his cap hit to (IIRC) the vet league minimum?
I know it’s still hard to even fathom (despite literally every claim the ‘sky is falling on the Packers cap blah blah blah crowd has made the past few months) that there’s a real possibility his deal gets redone at least once before he and the Packers officially (and finally) part ways.
You swore it wouldn’t work out this time, then when all the moves started happening that lovely ‘kick the can down the road’ line came up (talk about a dead horse).
The front office is smarter than us. I have confidence they’ll figure it out…again.
I will fully admit, I didn’t think alot of this was possible. But I do believe they are setting themselves up for failure in the future.
Brees did re-do his contract after he announced his retirement, but it still stuck the Saints will a bunch of dead cap, but this is even more extensive than Brees.
BTW – Packers are still $10M over the cap (Cobb & Mercedes Lewis are still on the roster) and Adams isn’t signed long term.
We’ll find out how much trouble it really is when the time comes.
Yep, Cobb and Lewis are still on the roster. For now at least. So is Crosby. And there’s still almost a full day (right..? The deadline is Wed afternoon unless I have that mixed up) to get it done. Time yet to potentially get those other extensions done too (Amos, Alexander and possibly Lowry). They also have til July to work with Adams on his deal.
And FWIW, I just checked OTC and they’re showing a little over $7 mil above the cap. Closer, but I get your point.