Soaring NFL Salary Cap Helps Packers Entering Free Agency

The Green Bay Packers and the rest of the NFL were given a major financial gift on Friday with news the salary cap has soared past $255 million.

GREEN BAY, Wis. – The NFL salary cap will soar to $255.4 million for the 2024 season, the league announced on Friday.

The news will be welcomed with open arms by the Green Bay Packers, no different than grabbing a coat you haven’t worn for months, sticking your hands in the pocket and finding a $20 bill.

This is much more than 20 bucks, though. Teams had been working under the premise that the cap would be somewhere near the $242 million projection that OverTheCap.com had been using.

“The NFL announced today that the 2024 Salary Cap will be $255.4 million per club, with an additional $74 million per club payment for player benefits, which includes Performance Based Pay and benefits for retired players. Total 2024 player costs will be $329.4 million per club, or more than $10.5 billion league-wide,” the league announced.

“The unprecedented $30 million increase per club in this year’s Salary Cap is the result of the full repayment of all amounts advanced by the clubs and deferred by the players during the COVID pandemic as well as an extraordinary increase in media revenue for the 2024 season.”

What does it mean for the Packers?

Well, they’re still toward the bottom of the league rankings with the start of the league-year looming on March 13. That’s the date when teams must be in compliance with the salary cap and can begin signing outside free agents.

Still, the additional $13 million windfall means the Packers’ Russ Ball, the team’s executive vice president/director of football operations/contract negotiator, might not have to perform as many financial gymnastics to get the team far enough under the cap to make some moves.

According to OverTheCap.com, the Packers are about $8.16 million under the cap. Once they get their NFL Draft class signed, they’ll be about $3.62 million under the cap.

But more work – much more work – will have to be done if the team intends to be active in free agency at all, whether it’s re-signings or additions. Moreover, the team will need money for things big (the forthcoming contract extension for quarterback Jordan Love sometime after May 2), small (the weekly in-season roster machinations) and in between (budget-friendly signings in March and the formation of a practice squad in September).

Nonetheless, it sure beats being close to $10 million over the cap with the signing of the draft picks, as was the case once the contracts of Darnell Savage, Keisean Nixon and Yosh Nijman officially voided.

“I think we’re getting to a little bit better spot than we have been in the past,” general manager Brian Gutekunst said during his season-ending news conference earlier this month. “It’s never perfect, but I do feel that whatever opportunities are out there to improve our team in free agency, that we’ll be able to do that, so I feel good about that.”

The big lever that can be pulled would be releasing former All-Pro left tackle David Bakhtiari. While Bakhtiari hopes last year’s season-ending surgeries will get his career back on a Hall of Fame trajectory, the Packers will need to deal with their salary cap long before there are any concrete answers on his long-term health.

Releasing Bakhtiari would cleanse the cap of almost $21 million in base salary and workout bonus.

“We are still at the very beginning stages of looking at how we are going to move forward with all of that,” Gutekunst said. “Obviously, David has been through a really rough stretch with the injury stuff and he’s going through a very major surgery trying to get back to be able to play. We’re monitoring that and I know he’s working his tail off. Once we get down the road and see where he’s at health-wise, we will kind of make those decisions.”

Several players can have hefty roster bonuses converted into signing bonus, which will create cap space, as well. That’s the credit-card/kicking-the-can-down-the-road approach to cap management, a cycle Gutekunst would like to end. The additional $13 million in cap space should help make that possible.

Alternatively, Gutekunst and Ball can get aggressive and use the additional cap dollars to build a formidable roster to challenge for the Super Bowl after reaching the divisional round in Year 1 with Love.

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