Understanding the Green Bay Packers’ needs and offseason plans first requires knowing where the roster stands exiting the 2021 season and entering 2022.
Going through position by position helps paint a clear picture of what GM Brian Gutekunst is facing this offseason, both from a personnel and salary cap standpoint.
Here’s our breakdown of the Packers’ roster at the safety position, with players under contract for 2022, free agents, early thoughts on the position group and a unique cap perspective from Ken Ingalls, a CPA who studies the salary cap:
Roster analysis
Under contract (5): Adrian Amos, Darnell Savage, Vernon Scott, Shawn Davis, Innis Gaines
Free agents (1): Henry Black (exclusive rights)
Early thoughts: This position group looks strong, especially if Black is retained on an exclusive rights deal. The Packers may need to re-work Amos’ deal to help the cap. As long as there isn’t an unexpected departure, safety will be a low-priority position to start the offseason. Then again, the Packers may want to upgrade the third position spot, an increasingly important position in today’s game.
Ken’s cap perspective
Adrian Amos checks in at the seventh-most expensive contract in 2022 at $11.98 million and the Packers could go in any direction with him much like Billy Turner and Dean Lowry. They can restructure, cut, or trade his contract after March 16th, and all would result in roughly $4.7 million of savings while a post June 1 cut designation would jump this up to $7.9 million. An extension isn’t out of the question either but wouldn’t help too much on the cap. Everyone else on the roster is sitting on cheap rookie or minimum deals. The Packers need to decide on Darnell Savage’s fifth-year option in the coming months otherwise 2022 would be the final year of his deal. They could try to squeeze another $1 million out of his deal via restructure but Savage would rather agree to an extension. Vernon Scott is the only player signed past 2022 as safety suddenly becomes a sneaky need this year.
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