Green Bay Packers Tough Decisions: Darnell Savage

Will Packers general manager Brian Gutekunst trigger the fifth-year option on safety Darnell Savage?

GREEN BAY, Wis. – A key offseason is here for the Green Bay Packers. The decisions that general manager Brian Gutekunst makes in the next five weeks to navigate through a $50 million hole in the salary cap will determine whether the Packers will contend for a Super Bowl in 2022.

This series of stories focuses on the critical decisions that lie ahead. Part 5 focuses on the fifth-year option for safety Darnell Savage.

Darnell Savage: 2022 Status – Under Contract

All draft picks sign four-year contracts. For a first-round pick, the drafting team can retain that player for an additional season by triggering a fifth-year option. That time has arrived for the 2019 first-round picks, including Green Bay’s duo of outside linebacker Rashan Gary and safety Darnell Savage. The deadline is May 2, or the Monday after the NFL Draft.

Flipping the switch on Gary will be a no-brainer. He’s emerged as a Pro Bowl-caliber defender. While he had “only” 9.5 sacks in 2021, he finished second among edge defenders in pressures, according to Pro Football Focus.

The decision is a bit more complicated with Savage. A starter for all three seasons, his option is projected to be worth a guaranteed $7.918 million, according to OverTheCap.com. (That figure is based on the average of the third- through 20th-highest-paid safeties in the league over the past five seasons.) Savage has been good. He’s been great, at times, but not often enough.

Some of that is usage. Savage just wasn’t used in a playmaking role by first-year defensive coordinator Joe Barry. During the offseason, Barry talked about using Savage in the slot. It was a role that Savage played at times at Maryland. That didn’t happen, though. It didn’t happen during offseason practices, it didn’t happen during training camp and it didn’t happen during the season. That remained the domain of Chandon Sullivan.

Mostly, Savage lined up 15 or 20 yards from the line of scrimmage and served as the last line of defense. It’s a role that’s hard to quantify. The Packers ranked eighth with 44 completions of 20-plus yards. Certainly, Savage had a hand in that.

Savage’s role might have been good for the team but it wasn’t good for Savage. Had he become the team’s primary slot defender, his fifth-year option would have been based on the cornerback pay scale. That would have bumped his pay up to about $11 million. Only the Packers know whether Savage’s role was based on the defense or finances.

By the traditional stats, Savage ranked third on the team with nine passes defensed, tied for third with two interceptions and was fourth with 63 tackles. He dropped three interceptions – one off the most in the NFL. Had he made one or two of those plays, including a potential game-changer at Minnesota in November, the narrative around his season might have been different.

The Packers’ massive cap problems for 2022 are going to be solved by kicking as much cap cash into 2023 as possible. Thus, having Savage’s cap charge being close to $8 million in 2023 isn’t going to help the team’s financial issues. Without anything resembling a starting-caliber safety waiting in the wings, the prudent thing would be to give Savage an extension and turn him loose like they did down the stretch in 2020.

All business decisions at 1265 Lombardi Ave., however, appear to be on hold until there’s certainty with quarterback Aaron Rodgers’ future.

More Tough Decisions

OLBs Za’Darius Smith and Preston Smith

K Mason Crosby

WR Allen Lazard

S Adrian Amos, RT Billy Turner, DT Dean Lowry, WR Randall Cobb

Green Bay Packers 2021 Redraft

Seventh-round RB Kylin Hill

Sixth-round LB Isaiah McDuffie

Sixth-round OT Cole Van Lanen

Fifth-round CB Shemar Jean-Charles

Fifth-round DT TJ Slaton

Fourth-round G Royce Newman

Third-round WR Amari Rodgers

Second-round C Josh Myers

First-round CB Eric Stokes