Packers Beneath Salary Cap Following Restructures

The Green Bay Packers shuffled some money around by restructuring the contracts of Jaire Alexander and Preston Smith.

GREEN BAY, Wis. – The Green Bay Packers restructured the contracts of cornerback Jaire Alexander and Preston Smith to get beneath the salary cap.

The moves were first reported by NFL Network’s Ian Rapoport. Unlike Aaron Jones, they did not take pay cuts, sources said in confirming the restructures.

The team’s usual credit-card approach to the salary cap provided a total of $16.124 million in cap savings for 2023. There are no free lunches, though, and that money will count against future caps.

Alexander was due to receive an $11.45 million roster bonus. That was turned into signing bonus and spread out over the next five years – the final four years of his contract and a void year that was plugged in for 2027. His base salary, which was due to be $1.45 million because he had pocketed a Pro Bowl escalator, was taken down to the minimum. The difference was made part of the restructure, as well.

The cap savings are $9.456 million, according to Rapoport.

Smith was due to receive a $7.5 million roster bonus. That was turned into signing bonus and spread out over the next five years – the final four years of his contract and the void year that was added in 2027. The cap savings are $6.668 million, according to Rapoport.

The Packers started the day about $9.67 million over the cap, with that number increasing to about $13.57 million once the 2023 NFL Draft class is accounted for, according to OverTheCap.com. Saturday’s transactions get the Packers beneath the cap in time for the start of the league-year on March 15, though there’s still work to be done before the Packers can actually do some business in terms of re-signings or additions.

One big-ticket item is defensive tackle Kenny Clark, who is due a $13 million base salary in 2023. The Packers could lop that down to the minimum and turn the difference into signing bonus. That would provide a little more than $11 million in cap relief.

Left tackle David Bakhtiari is due a $9.5 million roster bonus. Like the Packers just did with Alexander and Smith, that can be trimmed to the minimum with the difference turned into signing bonus.

“With the way we’re doing things lately, we’ll probably restructure everybody and try to keep making some room,” general manager Brian Gutekunst said at the end of the season.

By paying off one credit card with another, the Packers will be haunted by the ghosts of contracts past. More than $16 million in contract voids will be on the 2023 cap.

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