The restructured contract between Aaron Rodgers and the Green Bay Packers will have a significant impact on the team’s salary cap situation in 2021 and beyond.
The details were first provided by Tom Pelissero of NFL Network on Thursday.
Ken Ingalls put together a more detailed breakdown based on Pelissero’s reporting:
Here’s what you need to know, in four points:
No. 1: A void season was added in 2023, making the remaining contract a two-year deal through 2022.
No. 2: Rodgers can’t be franchise-tagged by the Packers if he plays out the two seasons and becomes a true free agent in 2023.
No. 3: The Packers are converting Rodgers’ base salary this year into a signing bonus and will save around $9.3 million in salary cap space in 2021. Rodgers’ new cap hit in 2021 is around $27.9 million.
No. 4: Trading Rodgers after this season would result in a dead cap hit of around $26.8 million but an overall savings on the cap of almost $19.3 million.
According to Over the Cap, the Packers now have around $9.65 million in cap space after restructuring Rodgers’ deal.
This newly created cap space might open the door for more veteran additions as the team goes all-in with Rodgers. And while the team made it financially more stressful to trade Rodgers next year, everything still points to the team moving on from the future Hall of Fame quarterback in 2022. The team will not be able to handle a cap hit of over $46 million for Rodgers next year. In fact, the savings of moving on will be absolutely critical to getting the team in a suitable cap position.
At the very least, this point is hammered home: The Packers must either trade Rodgers in 2022, or – if the two sides get to a better place – figure out a reasonable contract extension. More than likely, Rodgers’ next team will be negotiating his next contract while the Packers transition to Jordan Love.
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