Green Bay Packers president Mark Murphy pointed to a falling salary cap in 2021 and the team’s desire to re-sign several veteran players as primary reasons why the Packers weren’t able to make a deal before last week’s trade deadline.
Murphy explained the team’s decision-making process while answering a question about the deadline in his monthly column at Packers.com.
Murphy said the Packers had “discussions with a number of teams” but everyone inside the organization “agreed” there wasn’t a trade that worked for the team at the deadline, especially financially over the long term.
“This is obviously a unique year with the pandemic (and the impact it will have on next year’s salary cap) and it was uncertain how it would affect the trade market,” Murphy wrote. “Ultimately, I think many teams were reluctant to trade for high-salary players knowing that the salary cap will go down almost $25 million next year. For us, a key factor was that we wanted to be able to enter into contract extensions with some of our core veteran players.”
The Packers were reportedly interested in players such as Houston Texans receiver Will Fuller and New York Giants defensive lineman Dalvin Tomlinson, but with several in-house free agents – such as left tackle David Bakhtiari, running back Aaron Jones, cornerback Kevin King and center Corey Linsley – the Packers passed on spending salary cap money that could help the team bring back a few of those players in 2021.
The Packers are tight against the cap in 2020 and lacking wiggle room for 2021, especially if the cap falls significantly. The team can carry over cap from this year to next year, a potentially important factor for re-signing players with expiring contracts.
Murphy said the Packers, now 6-2 after beating the San Francisco 49ers in Week 9, are “well-positioned to finish the season strong.”
