With the salary cap expected to shrink during a unique offseason, the Green Bay Packers are prepared to push dollars to future years in an effort to maximize their ability to win now.
General manager Brian Gutekunst said Monday that he doesn’t know the exact salary cap number for 2021, but the Packers have a “pretty good idea where it’s going to be” and are expecting it to “go down,” complicating matters for a team with so much money already committed to next year’s cap.
In response to the challenge, Gutekunst is ready to restructure existing contracts and push cap commitments to future years to help the Packers keep their roster together and remain a Super Bowl contender.
“We’ve done that in the past, we’re going to have to do that this year, for sure,” Gutekunst said Monday. “The situation that our football team is in now, I think we have one goal in mind. And if there’s an opportunity to take some risks to help us win now, we’re certainly in that mode.”
Even if the salary cap ends up in the $180-185 million range, the Packers are still over the cap and will need to make several adjustments just to operate during this offseason. It’s possible the salary cap will fall all the way to the floor of $175 million, although current projections look a little more optimistic based on 2020 revenues.
Gutekunst is still expecting a significant drop and said he doesn’t foresee the cap staying anywhere close to level.
“I’m expecting it to go down, that’s the way we’re planning it,” Gutekunst said.
Like the Packers, 31 other NFL teams will likely have to kick the proverbial salary cap can down the road a year or two to deal with a shrinking cap in 2021.
“Obviously, with this year’s situation, I think most teams are going to be kicking money out to try to keep their teams together, and we certainly will be no different,” Gutekunst said.
The Packers will have options for creating space. As noted by Ken Ingalls in our roster breakdown, veterans Aaron Rodgers, Davante Adams, David Bakhtiari, Billy Turner, Za’Darius Smith and Adrian Amos all have contracts capable of being restructured to open up significant cap space in 2021. Doing so would ease the stress on the cap this year but commit more guaranteed money and cap commitments on future caps.
For instance, the Packers will almost certainly convert a major part of Bakhtiari’s upcoming roster bonus into a signing bonus, freeing up cap space now but also requiring the money to be spread out across the length of his new deal, adding new money to future caps.
When asked about re-doing parts of Rodgers’ deal, Gutekunst mostly avoided providing a direct answer, but he’s working under the assumption that several veteran players will need re-worked deals or paycuts to make it all work in 2021.
The Packers could also release veterans such as Rick Wagner, Dean Lowry, Preston Smith or Christian Kirksey to create more cap without future obligations.
The next few months will be critical to shaping the roster in 2021 and understanding the team’s long-term plans past next year, but Gutekunst said his team is comfortable with what’s ahead and ready to make “tough decision” on his roster.
“It’s a unique year, it’s very challenging, obviously we’re not the only team that has these challenges,” Gutekunst said. “I feel really comfortable, we’ve been working on this all year, getting ready for what’s going to happen over the next three or four months.”