Packers' Veteran Contracts Not a Priority Just yet
-- In what will be his first stint as executive vice president and director of football operations for the Green Bay Packers, Russ Ball will have more than enough work cut out for him.
The financial aspect of his job, however, will remain the same. And he's entering one of the most tumultuous offseasons in terms of decision-making in recent memory. Many of those decisions ride on the futures of veterans whose contracts are near expiration or in need of fine-tuning.
For now, there's a good chance Ball and general manager Brian Gutekunst won't publicly address the state of those aforementioned players until after the NFL Scouting Combine, which is currently taking place in Indianapolis.
"I think as we get closer to the free agent time period, get through the combine and get a better feel for the draft, some of those things will come into play," Gutekunst said on Wednesday.
The only seasoned team veteran with an expiring contract is safety Morgan Burnett, who is set to become a free agent at the start of the new league year on March 14. The three others -- Receivers Jordy Nelson, Randall Cobb and linebacker Clay Matthews -- are prone to potential restructured deals that would lower their cap hits.
All three players' deals currently run through the 2018 season, but Nelson is set to earn $12.5 million this upcoming year, Cobb will earn $12.7 million and Matthews will earn $11.3 million. To some, those numbers don't align properly with their production, leaving all three players susceptible to new, team-friendly contracts.
One thing is for certain: Gutekunst doesn't want to lose either one of them.
"I'll say this. We have some really good players, and we don't want to let them walk out the door. It's hard enough in this league to find them, so we certainly wouldn't want them to walk out the door.
"But, there are restraints. Every decision affects something else. But, we want to let all the information come in before we get to that."
The happenings of free agency and the upcoming draft will likely determine how the Packers handle the situations of their veteran players and those with expiring deals. Gutekunst also said that there will be conversations with the team's other free agents throughout the week, including Burnett.
On top of the financial burdens Gutekunst and Ball must sort through, there's also the likelihood that quarterback Aaron Rodgers is dealt a contract extension in the coming months. Tackling that obstacle while the market for quarterbacks continues to ascend is something the Packers are evidently keeping an eye on.
"We'd certainly like to get it done sooner rather than later. When you have the best player in the NFL, it's not going to be inexpensive."
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Zachary Jacobson is a staff writer/reporter for Cheesehead TV. He's the voice of The Leap on iTunes and can be heard on The Scoop KLGR 1490 AM every Saturday morning. He's also a contributor on the Pack-A-Day Podcast. He can be found on Twitter via @ZachAJacobson or contacted through email at [email protected].
Comments (13)
lou
February 28, 2018 at 03:49 pm
Not just yet but before March 14th officially but you better believe internally they are already a top priority. Based on what they do/don't do by March 14th we will have a real good idea how aggressive they can be in free agency and a more definitive answer on the positions most important in the draft. You wonder how the new "3 Headed Decision Maker" restructure will effect who comes and who goes, get your popcorn ready, it won't take long to determine who has the upper hand.
Bure9620
February 28, 2018 at 08:46 pm
Basically $17 mil to play with (after rookie pool). This is pretty decent room as 3 contracts worth $36 million expire after this year. BG /Ball could sign 2 solid FA's and give them 3 year backloaded cap deals with good signing bonuses.
Thegreatreynoldo
March 01, 2018 at 01:23 am
No, apparently not yet, but they have to be sorted out fairly soon. Having it done by the start of the legal tampering period would make sense.
Under the rule of 51, I think we have $13.699M to spend on FAs after signing our draft picks (assuming we don't trade up, down, or sideways). That is my opinion, but it clearly isn't a fact.
Bearmeat
March 01, 2018 at 08:56 am
Yeah. If Gute wants to do anything in FA, he's going to have to either cut, restructure, or extend Jordy, Randall, Clay or Bryan. Maybe all of them.
I think it's pretty clear that the team can get better production from at least some of those spots for less cost on the open market. But loyalty looks to be having its day. :(
Royalty Free GM
March 01, 2018 at 04:13 am
Sounds like they will keep almost every old pals and everything stays same. They are afraid of doing any BIG moves.
Why did we change GM?
And ARod will be one year older...
Bearmeat
March 01, 2018 at 09:00 am
The downvoters to anyone being critical of the roster/coaching/FO need to look realistically at the quality and makeup of the whole team - not just ARod. If things don't change, this team is NOT going back to the super bowl. Outside of ARod, the team is old and expensive, with very little proven or quality depth behind mostly marginal starters.
It is past time to rebuild.
dobber
March 01, 2018 at 09:52 am
I would argue that the rebuild has been underway for a couple years now...it's just that the majority of the new players haven't been better players.
https://www.profootballfocus.com/news/2014-depth-chart-green-bay-packers
Bearmeat
March 01, 2018 at 10:19 am
Ok fine. But then what does that say about the rebuild we have been having since 2014? If you have players you know can't play.... and you keep playing them..... doesn't that say not good things?
dobber
March 01, 2018 at 12:59 pm
Yup.
egbertsouse
March 01, 2018 at 08:24 am
I’m hoping that all this talk is GM-speak designed to not rile the veterans. If not, and they stand pat on these big contracts, maybe the changes in management were just a reshuffling of deck chairs on the Titanic
dobber
March 01, 2018 at 09:59 am
In the end, it has to be all about the vision of the "GM". We can argue about what the current power structure does or does not do to hamstring Gutekunst, but until we see an off-season or two under his belt (and maybe not even then) we won't really know with any degree of certainty how that plays out.
If BGs vision is to fortify and sally forth, which sounds like the minimum path to trying to get back in the SB discussion, then it will likely look a lot like shuffling the deck chairs. If his plan is to take back the Packers salary cap situation and essentially rebuild key areas of the roster, it may look as if he's giving away 2018 with the hope of being stronger from 2019 on. I would argue that his current vibe looks more like the former, but smart fortifications and a little bit of luck might turn out more like the latter...especially since several large contracts come off the books on their own after 2018.
ShawnO
March 01, 2018 at 09:36 am
listening to MM talk, it sounded like they are in the middle of conducting reviews on each player going back to the beginning of their careers to figure out if they are not using the players correctly or if they just lost the ability to be great again. Between that information, the combine, and the reports on available free agents they will get an idea of how they would like all this to shake out. It takes time to gather and consider all that info.
Spock
March 03, 2018 at 10:27 am
One aspect of restructuring Rodgers' contract now is that the 5 year proration part of his last contract is w going to be over. Per the team's official website Mike Spofford had this reply to an insider inbox question, "Rodgers’ last extension was in 2013, and signing bonus can be prorated only over five years, so there’s no remaining proration to count against Green Bay’s 2018 cap. Assuming his new extension will replace the two remaining years, any signing bonus can be spread over the caps from 2018-2022. He’ll have other guarantees built into his deal as well, and they have to be capped in the year they’re paid."
I hadn't realized there was a five year limit to prorating players contracts; now it makes more sense to me that they would restructure Arod's deal before this season.