Packer Central

Packers Keep Creating Cap Space

The Green Bay Packers have just about completed their annual restructuring of contracts after shuffling the money on De’Vondre Campbell’s contract.

Bill Huber

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GREEN BAY, Wis. – The Green Bay Packers on Wednesday restructured linebacker De’Vondre Campbell’s contract to create additional cap space. With that, they’ve flipped just about every couch cushion in their annual search for cap cash.

As reported by ESPN.com’s Field Yates, the Packers converted a $3 million roster bonus into signing bonus and cut Campbell’s base salary to the league minimum, with the $285,000 difference also converted into signing bonus. With the insertion of one void year to help with the accounting, Green Bay gained $2.628 of cap space.

Campbell’s old cap numbers were about $8.156 million in 2023, $13.75 million in 2024 and $11.875 million in 2025 and 2026. Now, according to OverTheCap.com, Campbell has a $5.528 million cap charge in 2023 but up to $14.41 million in 2024, $12.53 million in 2025 and 2026, and $657,000 in the 2027 void year.

The transaction didn’t have to be negotiated since Campbell is getting the same amount of money as scheduled.

The Packers have only two remaining players with roster bonuses.

One is cornerback Rasul Douglas, who has a base salary of $3.25 million and a roster bonus of $2 million for 2023. Since his contract is set to expire after the 2024 season, the Packers could add three void years to maximize the savings potential. That, according to OTC, would be $2.235 million.

The other is punter Pat O’Donnell, who has a base salary of $1.2 million and a roster bonus of $650,000. He had a solid first season in Green Bay but, if the Packers decide to go young and cheap as part of a financial reset, the Packers could release him and save $1.9 million.

A release would be a surprise, though. He is not making that much money, and a reliable, veteran holder would be a big asset if there is a new kicker.

One last option would be an extension for star outside linebacker Rashan Gary, who is due a guaranteed $10.892 million on his fifth-year option. He is coming off a torn ACL, though, so the team might want to track his progress before handing over a monster contract.

With the restricted free agent tender for Yosh Nijman and the Campbell restructure, the Packers are about $20.1 million under the cap. Once the 2023 draft class is added, that falls to $16.2 million. Trading Aaron Rodgers would take an $8.7 million bite from those apples.

Campbell was an All-Pro in 2021 but not nearly as productive in 2022 upon re-signing with a five-year, $50 million contract. The team captain went from 145 tackles in 16 games to 96 tackles in 13 games. For an apples-to-apples comparison, those 96 tackles project to 118 over 16 games. He did match his 2021 production with six passes defensed and two interceptions.

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Could Packers get receiver in Aaron Rodgers trade?

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Bill Huber
BILL HUBER

Bill Huber, who has covered the Green Bay Packers since 2008, is the publisher of Packers On SI, a Sports Illustrated channel. E-mail: packwriter2002@yahoo.com History: Huber took over Packer Central in August 2019. Twitter: https://twitter.com/BillHuberNFL Background: Huber graduated from the University of Wisconsin-Whitewater, where he played on the football team, in 1995. He worked in newspapers in Reedsburg, Wisconsin Dells and Shawano before working at The Green Bay News-Chronicle and Green Bay Press-Gazette from 1998 through 2008. With The News-Chronicle, he won several awards for his commentaries and page design. In 2008, he took over as editor of Packer Report Magazine, which was founded by Hall of Fame linebacker Ray Nitschke, and PackerReport.com. In 2019, he took over the new Sports Illustrated site Packer Central, which he has grown into one of the largest sites in the Sports Illustrated Media Group.

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