The Green Bay Packers just suffered an ugly loss to the Washington Commanders. One of their worst losses of… the last few weeks. In back-to-back-to-back weeks the Packers lost to the Giants, Jets, and Commanders. This is the first three-game losing streak of Matt LaFleur’s head coaching tenure in Green Bay. Social media reacted exactly how you thought it might after an ugly loss like this. From asking to bench Aaron Rodgers to firing Matt LaFleur. However, there was one stat that caught my eye regarding the future of the team. Aaron Rodgers’ owed money in 2023 is mind-boggling.
Aaron Rodgers Owed Money Going Forward:
Ken Ingalls has proven to be the self-proclaimed Packers’ salary cap guru. He consistently is not far off from what happens regarding the Packers’ salary cap. Today he acknowledged how much Green Bay will have to pay Rodgers if he suits up next year:
Aaron Rodgers is due almost $60 million guaranteed if he plays football next season.
The Packers can’t be feeling 100% great about potentially having to write that check.
— Ken Ingalls – Packers Cap 💰 (@KenIngalls) October 23, 2022
In June Ken Ingalls broke down how much Rodgers is supposed to get paid over the next few years:
Aaron Rodgers will earn $42.0M cash in 2022, yet only $9.36 million counts on the 2022 cap
2023: $59.5M cash, $15.74M on cap
2024: $49.3M cash, $17.97M on capHuge built-in cap proration here! If he plays 3 years & retires the Packers end up with a $76.8M dead cap over 2025-2026.
Ken goes on to say:
Does Rodgers play 3 more years? Probably not…
So if it ends up being 1 & Done for Rodgers, the Packers are left with “only” $40.31M of the dead cap in 2023-2024.
If it’s 2 years & Done, then they are hit with $68.21M of dead cap in 2024-2025.
Consequently, only $9M of the $42M of cash counts this year. The remaining $19M of cap hit this year is previous years’ prorations from his last contract. That’s how it counts a total of ~$28M.
What Does This Mean Going Forward?
With the way the Packers look seven weeks into the 2022 NFL Season, it is already being questioned if the Packers should pay Aaron Rodgers. If the Packers finish the 2022 season the way it has started, it will be hard for anyone to justify that type of money. Could Jordan Love be getting the call earlier than expected? A rough finish to the 2022 NFL season creates some extremely hard questions for the Packers’ front office.
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