As was the case last offseason, the Green Bay Packers are currently over the salary cap entering the 2022 offseason, meaning general manager Brian Gutekunst and executive vice president Russ Ball must find ways of trimming costs and shedding cap space over the next month or so.
One option at their disposal: cutting veteran players that could immediately create big chunks of cap space. Turning useful players into cap casualties will be seen as a last resort option, but in some cases, the option will be unavoidable as the Packers attempt to put all the financial puzzle pieces together this offseason.
For the purpose of this exercise, we considered quarterback Aaron Rodgers, offensive tackle David Bakhtiari, defensive lineman Kenny Clark and running back Aaron Jones as uncuttable. Cornerback Jaire Alexander, outside linebacker Rashan Gary, safety Darnell Savage, quarterback Jordan Love, offensive lineman Elgton Jenkins, running back A.J. Dillon, cornerback Eric Stokes and center Josh Myers are core players that have no logical or functional reason for release.
Trading Rodgers would help save $19.8 million on the cap, but the savings wouldn’t go into effect until the start of the new league year, and the Packers aren’t going to cut him.
That leaves the following players as potential cap casualties (capable of saving $1 million or more on the cap in 2022) for the Packers this offseason. All numbers from Over the Cap.