Last season with the reduced salary cap the Packers restructured plenty of contracts to kick the can down the road by pushing money onto future years.
And now we’re seeing the front office begin to do the same thing.
The first restructure goes to star nose tackle Kenny Clark. The Packers save $11 million by converting most of Clark’s base salary and roster bonus into a signing bonus and adding two voidable years.
Gutekunst said Wednesday this is the first of many player contracts that’ll be adjusted, but he also alluded to some “tough decisions” that’ll have to be made in the future.
Some of the bigger decisions will be whether to retain All-Pro linebacker De’Vondre Campbell and corner Rasul Douglas, who made huge contributions while making less than $3 million combined. Both would be valued highly on the open market.
Even with Aaron Rodgers and Davante Adams’ statuses unclear, Gutekunst says it’s possible to make this all work financially.
“We’ve worked through a lot of different scenarios,” Gutekunst said. “There’s always challenges, but having good players here, you work around that.”
Gutekunst isn’t here to talk about hypotheticals, but all this bending over backwards financially is so that they can build around Rodgers and Adams. It’s why they let Rodgers have a say in bringing back Tom Clements for quarterback coach, and Gutekunst added they’ll “exhaust every option” to sign Adams long-term, including a potential franchise tag.
“It’s not something we like to do,” Gutekunst said of the franchise tag, which is essentially an expensive one-year guaranteed salary calculated by averaging the top five salaries at that player’s position. “We certainly would not like to do that if we don’t have to–would certainly like to come up with a long-term deal that works for both sides, but again, that’s a hypothetical–a lot of things have to happen before we get to that point.”
Teams can place franchise tags on eligible players until March 8.
Gutekunst was also asked if he would field any trade calls on Jordan Love this offseason, and he said it’s “very doubtful” he’d take those calls.
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