Packers’ Credit-Card Approach Is Painful Necessity

The Green Bay Packers are on the ugly cycle of having to use a new credit card to pay off the old one. But what was the alternative?

GREEN BAY, Wis. – The Green Bay Packers reached for their American Express in 2021. They grabbed their Mastercard in 2022. In 2023, they’ve pulled out their Visa.

In their never-ending quest to stay ahead of the NFL’s ultimate bill-collector, the salary cap, general manager Brian Gutekunst and right-hand man Russ Ball once again are taking the credit-card approach to building a roster.

They whipped out their credit card again this week by restructuring the contracts of cornerback Jaire Alexander and Preston Smith. Those moves, which were reported on Saturday, were enough to get the Packers on the right side of the salary cap, but the kicking of the financial can down the road isn’t going to stop, no matter their sore toes.

To create enough cap space to re-sign any of their free agents or to bring in any outside free agents, they’ll need to create more space. That means the credit card almost certainly will be used to restructure the contract of defensive tackle Kenny Clark and perhaps left tackle David Bakhtiari.

By turning roster bonuses into signing bonuses, the Packers moved a mountain of money with Alexander and Smith. In the process, Alexander’s cap charge went from about $20.2 million to $10.8 million – an immediate savings of $9.4 million. Smith’s cap charge went from about $13.0 million to about $6.4 million – an immediate savings of $6.6 million.

Voila, with the waving of the plastic and nothing negotiated, the Packers freed up about $16.1 million.

That’s great for 2023, which is what matters. If the idea is to put together a championship-caliber roster, regardless of whether it’s Aaron Rodgers or Jordan Love at quarterback, creating roster space to keep players is better than creating space by getting rid of players.

The problem is the collection agency knows where to find Gutekunst and Co.

With the shuffling of money, Alexander’s cap charges will soar to $24.36 million in 2024, $25.86 million in 2025 and $27.86 million in 2026.

A better example of the credit-card approach is with Clark, who figures to be the next in line.

When he signed a contract extension in 2020, his back-loaded deal included cap charges of $20.65 million in 2022, $21.25 million in 2023 and $22.0 million in 2024. Via last year’s restructure, he had a $10.0 million cap charge in 2022, followed by $23.97 million in 2023, $24.72 million in 2024 and a $5.45 million dead-money charge on a 2025 void season.

Due a $13 million base salary for 2023, the Packers no doubt will cut that to the minimum and distribute the rest as a signing bonus that can be prorated over the remainder of the contract. So, that 2024 cap number could encroach on $27.0 million.

For another example, Bakhtiari agreed to an extension in 2020. His cap charges at the time were $19.45 million in 2021, $20 million in 2022, $23.5 million in 2023 and $27.5 million in 2024. Bakhtiari restructured in 2021 and 2022, which limited those cap charges to $10.97 million in 2021 and $13.77 million in 2022. Now, because of all that shuffled money, he’s scheduled to have cap charges of $28.85 million in 2023 and $33.07 million in 2024.

There’s no escaping the pain. On the Packers’ 2023 cap are $16.4 million worth of voided contracts. That seven-man list is led by safety Adrian Amos. Even if he departs in free agency, he’ll count $7.95 million on this year’s cap. That’s one of the highest amounts on the team – even if he’s not on the team.

If it all sounds ugly, that’s because it is. From a cap perspective, the Packers are like a bored dog that’s trying to catch its tail but can’t, finally falling to the floor out of dizziness and embarrassment.

But, from our perspective, anyway, don’t misconstrue this as criticism.

The Packers were coming off 13-win seasons in 2019, 2020 and 2021. They reached NFC Championship Games in 2019 and 2020 and were the No. 1 seed in 2020 and 2021.

Always one of the best-run teams from a financial perspective, COVID took a huge bite out of the salary cap and created an enormous fork in the roster-building road.

Either grab the credit card and move the financial equivalent of heaven and earth to keep a championship-caliber team together. Or be financially responsible but have to cut talented players from the roster.

Gutekunst took the aggressive route in pursuit of a Super Bowl. Who can knock that approach? It didn’t work and now the cap is a mess, but he rightly would have been crucified for cutting the roster and undermining the team’s championship hopes.

The albatross that is Rodgers’ contract extension from last offseason – which is a different topic for conversation – complicates the financial picture. The Packers needed cap space and their quarterback made them pay.

Now, the only way out of the credit-card cycle will be moving on from Rodgers – the equivalent of going to credit counseling. That will mean a lot of short-term pain but long-term financial freedom.

The many-millions-of-dollars question is whether the Packers will keep chasing their tail with Rodgers for another season. Or, as impossible as this sounds, does their almost-maxed-out credit card have enough spending power for a shiny silver trophy.

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Another day. Another mock draft. Another first-round receiver for the #Packers.

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Here's Part 40 of our ridiculous 100-days-of-mocks series.https://t.co/3GAJUq45wQ

— Bill Huber (@BillHuberNFL) February 25, 2023

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