Green Bay Packers restructure Aaron Jones contract to create more salary cap space
Tom Silverstein
GREEN BAY – The Green Bay Packers continue to reduce their 2022 salary obligations through the restructuring of player contracts.
On Thursday, they used running back Aaron Jones’ contract to lower their salary cap another $3.1 million, leaving them roughly $39 million over the expected $208.2 million limit. The Packers have until March 16 to get under the limit.
A source said the Packers took Jones’ $3.75 million roster bonus and $65,000 of his base salary and converted it to a signing bonus. They added two voidable years, which allowed them to spread the charge over five years and reduce Jones’ cap number from $8.9 million to $5.9 million.
ESPN first reported the news that Jones' contract had been restructured.
On Wednesday, the Packers converted $14.65 million of nose tackle Kenny Clark’s deal and spread it out over five years, which they were able to do after adding two voidable years. They reduced his salary cap charge from $20.9 million to $9.65 million.
The two restructures allowed them to cut roughly $14 million from their cap.
The Packers' use of voidable years lessens the salary-cap charge in '22, but raises it in future years. The team adds years to the existing deal – usually as many as it takes to make it a five-year contract – but no salaries other than the cap charge are assigned to those new years.
Language in the contract specifies that those voidable years disappear as soon as the player completes his non-voidable years; or he retires, is cut or traded. At that time, the remaining salary-cap charges from the voidable years becomes due and is considered "dead money" if the player is no longer on the team.
In Jones' case, if he were to play through the final three years of his contract, the Packers would still have $1.53 million of salary-cap charges that would be due during the '25 season.
It also means Jones' salary-cap number in '23 is a whopping $20 million. The Packers will have to decide whether to carry that, ask for a pay cut or let Jones go. The salary cap is expected to go up around 15% next year, so the Packers might be able to carry the $20 million.
His cap number in '24 is $16 million.
The Packers will continue to restructure contracts in the coming weeks and probably will target left tackle David Bakhtiari, safety Adrian Amos, outside linebacker Preston Smith and tackle Billy Turner among others.