A sign of improving health on the salary cap front for the Green Bay Packers: General manager Brian Gutekunst and executive vice president Russ Ball paid out roster bonuses to cornerback Jaire Alexander and left guard Elgton Jenkins, per Tom Silverstein of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel.
Why are the payments significant to the salary cap? Converting roster bonuses into signings bonuses, a common lever pulled by the Packers and many other teams in recent years, is a useful way to create salary cap space in the present for team that need immediate operating room. But the moves create problems in future years, and the Packers have been feeling the pain of going all-in financially at the end of the Aaron Rodgers era.
When converting the roster bonus, the total can be prorated on the cap over the remaining years of the contract, lowering the cap number in the current year but adding cap commitments in future years.
Instead of spreading out the cap hits, the Packers paid out the roster bonuses and kept all the cap on the books for 2024. Gutekunst and Ball just didn’t need to pull the lever to create space because the Packers are still roughly $24 million under the cap as of March 18, per Over the Cap.
Alexander is under contract through the 2026 season with a void year added in 2027. Jenkins is under contract through the 2026 season with no void years.
Preston Smith also had a $5.4 million roster bonus paid out on March 16.
Factoring in Smith’s roster bonus, the Packers had the opportunity to create almost $15 million in salary cap space with conversions. But even after signing Xavier McKinney and Josh Jacobs to top-of-market deals, the Packers don’t need the space and can avoid kicking the can down the road.