The money moving continues for the Green Bay Packers as they try to get far enough under the 224.8 million dollar salary cap to sign free agents of their own or from other teams and pay for the 2023 draft class. Over the weekend, the Packers restructured deals with All Pro defensive back Jaire Alexander and linebacker Preston Smith. The team will convert salary and roster bonuses into signing bonuses and stretch those payments out for another five years giving them roughly 16 million dollars in salary cap space. Alexander would have counted 20.2 million against the cap this year but the restructuring will give him more cash up front with a voidable year added on to his remaining four year deal negotiated a year ago, reducing his cap amount to 10.75 million. Smith also had a voidable year added to his contract which lowers his cap number from 13 to 6.3 million dollars.
Running back Aaron Jones had his contract restructured a couple of weeks ago and more may be in line. There are reports the team has contacted Kenny Clark and David Bakhtiari about restructures as well. Clark has a 23.9 million dollar cap figure for 2023 and Bakhtiari is nearly at 28.8 million.
The quarterback question remains unanswered too. Aaron Rodgers has a cap figure of 31 million with a 59.5 million salary for 2023. He has yet to inform the team of his plans for the season and if he returns, without some changes to his contract, the team will have precious little wiggle room for any other restructuring not to mention cap space to retain unrestricted free agents who are set to hit the open market on March 15. The list of those players includes Allen Lazard, Randall Cobb, Robert Tonyan, Marcedes Lewis, Mason Crosby, Adrian Amos and Jarran Reed.
General Manager Brian Gutekunst is in Indianapolis to attend the NFL Scouting Combine and is scheduled to meet with the media on Tuesday.
