By choosing to move on from Aaron Rodgers at this time, the Green Bay Packers inevitably worsened their already tight salary cap situation for this season.
As a member of the Packers in 2023, Rodgers came with a cap hit of $31.62 million. However, by trading him prior to June 1st, he leaves behind a dead cap hit of $40.31 million–or money that remains on the books even if Rodgers is playing elsewhere because of a bonus that he has already received but hasn’t yet counted against the salary cap.
So instead of the Packers having $21.4 million in available cap space, according to Over the Cap, with nearly an additional $9 million in cap space being devoted to Rodgers via dead cap, Green Bay now has roughly just $12.4 million available.
Potential salary cap relief as part of the trade is that Rodgers would sign a revised contract with the Packers to help facilitate the trade and help their salary cap situation, according to Tom Pelissero. What that looks like specifically is still unknown.
Some more good news is that the Packers didn’t have to pick up any portion of the $59.5 million in guarantees that Rodgers is due this season. Had that been a part of the deal, every dollar from that guaranteed salary that Green Bay would have paid for would also have been added to Rodgers’ already massive dead cap hit, according to Ken Ingalls. Some other good news is that the $40.7 million cap hit Rodgers would have had in 2024 and the $59.3 million in 2025 are now off the books. Once through 2023, there won’t be any salary cap impact from trading Rodgers.
Given the magnitude of the contract extension that was signed last offseason and the complexity of it, from a salary cap perspective, the Packers had very few options when it came to reducing the impact on their 2023 books. Even if Rodgers finished his career in Green Bay, this wasn’t the most team-friendly deal, with the cap hit increasing every year and peaking at $59 million in 2025, with very few opportunities to restructure the contract.
Trading Rodgers after June 1st would have been the most cap-friendly solution in terms of moving on from him this offseason, with the dead cap hit for 2023 being $15.83 million compared to $40.31. However, another almost $24 million in dead cap would also be on the 2024 books in this scenario as well. On top of that, with the 2023 draft having already passed in this scenario, the trade compensation received by the Packers wouldn’t be until 2024, and with training camp nearing for the acquiring team, who knows how that would have impacted his already seemingly limited trade market?
At this stage of the game, Green Bay is just about all out of salary cap-creating moves after restructuring seven different contracts that, in total, created almost $50 million in cap space. In terms of significant cap-saving moves, Green Bay is all out of those. At some point, they will extend Rashan Gary this offseason, freeing up $3 million to $4 million in cap space. They could still rework Jon Runyan’s deal, and although perhaps unlikely, trading Darnell Savage would free up almost another $8 million.
It’s also important to keep in mind that the Packers don’t only need cap space to make a few outside free-agent additions but also to re-sign any of their own free agents, along with having room for the incoming draft class, practice squad, the 52nd and 53rd players on the roster, and any potential in-season spending that may occur. So although on paper Green Bay may have roughly $12 million in cap space, that isn’t what is actually available to spend on free agents.
Positions of need that Green Bay will have to address this offseason, whether that be in free agency or the draft, include receiver, safety, tight end, edge rusher, interior defensive lineman, offensive tackle, and now quarterback — as a backup for Love — with Rodgers in New York.
At the end of the day, the salary cap impact of trading Rodgers shows just how willing the Packers were to move on from him. Imagine a year ago saying that Green Bay was willing to eat $40-plus million in dead cap just so that Rodgers could play elsewhere.
