The four new players signed by the Green Bay Packers to start free agency won’t take up all of the team’s available salary cap space.
Thanks to some clever structuring from GM Brian Gutekunst and executive vice president Russ Ball, the Packers used up only $23.4 million of the team’s available cap space on signing Za’Darius Smith, Preston Smith, Adrian Amos and Billy Turner to start free agency.
After factoring in the release of Nick Perry and the tendering of Geronimo Allison, the Packers have roughly $13.9 million in cap space still to use.
Some of the space will go to veteran Marcedes Lewis, who returned on a one-year deal. Allison’s tender took up a little over $2 million.
Still, the Packers used several of their go-to contract tricks to keep the cap hits of the four new additions way down in 2019.
Big signing bonuses, escalating base salaries, mid-contract roster bonuses and significant per-game bonuses and workout bonuses all help frontload the contracts financially but backload the deals on the cap.
The 2019 cap hits of the new signings:
Za’Darius Smith: $7.25 million
Preston Smith: $6 million
Adrian Amos: $5.9 million
Billy Turner: $4.25 million
Not bad for four contracts with a total combined value of $183 million.
The Packers have to sign a draft class and will want money left over for emergencies, but they still have enough room under the cap to make one or two more notable deals. Keep an eye on the Packers as the market cools down and the bargains become available. Hitting on a couple more cheap veterans could really solidify the roster before the draft.
It’s also possible the Packers will use a big chunk of the remaining money to keep a few of their own, such as Clay Matthews, Muhammad Wilkerson, Bashaud Breeland or Jake Ryan, among others.
