The Green Bay Packers have a number of decisions they will have to make today. February 20th marks the Packers Contract Void Day. If no extensions take place, a total of $16.4M in dead cap will be on the books for these players in 2023, even if they play elsewhere. There are seven players who fall into this category and count toward that $16.4M total.
Green Bay Packers Have To Make Decisions On Seven Players
Unless the Green Bay Packers choose to extend seven contracts on or before February 20th, they will incur $16.4 million in dead cap hits because of previous voided contracts. According to Ken Ingalls, who independently tracks the Packers’ salary cap, the following seven players fall into this category:
- Safety Adrian Amos
- Defensive Lineman Dean Lowry
- Defensive Lineman Jarran Reed
- Wide Receiver Randall Cobb
- Kicker Mason Crosby
- Tight End Marcedes Lewis
- Tight End Robert Tonyan
Each of those players are free agents going into the 2023 off-season and are contributing to this accumulated dead cap hit total. The largest dead cap hit from this group will be Adrian Amos. Amos’ totals $7.9 million. Lowry, meanwhile, has a dead cap hit of just over $3 million, while the rest are under $1.5 million. According to Paul Brel of Dairy Land Express:
Over the previous two off-seasons, in order to get under the salary cap while also trying to keep their roster intact, the Packers have utilized voided years on a number of occasions. In short, voided years are for bookkeeping purposes. On paper, they extend the contract’s life, giving the team a longer runway to spread cap charges over, but in reality, the contract didn’t have any additional years added on. So when that contract is up — which is the case this offseason for the players mentioned — those cap charges pushed into the voided years all come due and, in this instance, will be on the 2023 salary cap, regardless of whether or not those players are suiting up for the Packers this season.
Now, as already alluded to, if the Packers were to extend any of these players on or prior to that February 20th date, they could avoid those dead cap charges by pushing them into the additional years that would come with the new deal. However, will the Packers go that route? Given Amos’ dead cap hit, coupled with the need at safety, of this group, an extension for him makes the most sense, but it remains to be seen if there is mutual interest in an extension, whether it be with Amos or any of the other players with voided contracts.
In general, this is going to be another off-season where the Packers are up against the salary cap. Currently, Over the Cap has them at $16.4 million over the salary cap. They have a few significant cuts that can be made to help create cap space. One includes moving on from Aaron Jones, but from a football perspective, that makes little sense. The other would be David Bakhtiari, but the cap savings just aren’t large enough to justify the move.
Ken Ingalls does not expect any contracts to be signed today. This still leaves the door open for any of these players to return to Green Bay in 2023, however, the dead cap hit will be in place after today nevertheless. Check out Wisconsin Sports Heroics for any updates regarding these players!
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