GREEN BAY – As the March 9 start of free-agent negotiations and the March 11 deadline to be salary-cap compliant approach, the Green Bay Packers have a couple of different roads they can travel.
Under general manager Brian Gutekunst and executive vice president of football operations Russ Ball, the Packers have been a station-to-station team when it comes to the salary cap and free agency. They don’t clear large amounts of cap space until they need it.
Going into the start of the 2026 football calendar year, they need cap space. Their top-51 cap salaries – those are the only ones that count during the offseason – together with their dead contract obligations total more than the salary cap limit of $301.2 million.
The Packers will have their own adjusted cap number based on the $8.071 million in space they carry over from 2025 and any other credits or debits applied, but for now it’s fair to estimate a $5 million overage heading into March 4 based on numbers from NFLPA salary data.
From here, the Packers can create breathing room with the release of offensive lineman Elgton Jenkins, who could be an asset this year but not at a cap number of $24.3 million. Releasing Jenkins will clear $19.5 million of cap space.
After that, there are two directions the Packers can go.
They can create another $11 million by releasing or trading end Rashan Gary, whose cap number of $28 million is high for someone who had 7½ sacks last year and wasn’t nearly as good after Micah Parsons was lost for the season.
Or the Packers can hold onto him and restructure some other contracts to create space. But it means pushing those cap charges into future years.
If the Packers cut Jenkins and Gary and restructure six veterans with large roster bonuses or high base salaries, they could clear more than $70 million in cap space. That would be tapping just about every resource they have right now.
It would allow them to make competitive offers to several of their own free agents – such as linebacker Quay Walker, receiver Romeo Doubs, center Sean Rhyan and defensive end Kingsley Enagbare – and still have money left to sign a free agent or two.
The six who could have their contracts restructured are:
The Packers could go all-in on this season if they executed those moves and would gain even more space if they were able to come to a long-term agreement with defensive tackle Devonte Wyatt, thereby slashing his $12.9 million cap number at least in half. They could gain a little more with extensions for receiver Christian Watson and tight end Tucker Kraft.
Pushing $45 million of cap space into the future is a risk, especially with Love’s cap number reaching $42 million, Parsons’ $26 million and McKinney’s $22 million next season. But the way the salary cap keeps rising, they might get away with it.
The next path they must choose is how many of their own free agents do they re-sign.
Quarterback Malik Willis won’t return because he’s seeking a starting job and is in line for a hefty pay increase. Some have speculated he’ll get as much as $30 million per year, but a front office official for an NFC team said he guessed it would be closer to $20-25 million in real money (not counting inflated salaries he’s not expected to earn in the final years of the deal).
The Packers are hoping he gets $30 million or more because the higher the salary, the higher the free-agent compensatory draft pick they’ll get in 2027. That’s another subject that will be considered in all this.
It’s likely the Packers won’t make a play for left tackle Rasheed Walker, who isn’t coming off a very good year and probably will look good to someone who doesn’t have a competent starting left tackle.
Then there’s Quay Walker. He may be as good as gone. If he gets an offer in the $11-million-or-more (per year) range, the Packers probably won’t try to match it.
The Packers reached out to agents who have linebacker clients about to hit the open market during the combine, according to one source who had business with them in Indianapolis. That indicates either they know they won’t be able to afford Walker and are moving on or are covering their bases .
It is not out of the question that the Packers make strong pushes for Doubs, Rhyan and Enagbare. Doubs and Rhyan are starters who aren’t easily replaced and may not find the pot of gold they’re looking for in free agency.
The Packers have defensive ends Lukas Van Ness, Barryn Sorrell and Collin Oliver under contract and can afford to allow Enagbare to leave, even though he had a valuable role filling in for Van Ness and Parsons when they were injured and providing solid play when he backed them up.
If they were to lose Doubs, Rhyan and Enagbare, they would have questionable depth at their respective positions and would need to explore the free-agent market to bulk up the positions.
Speaking of depth, they face a challenge with their group of restricted free agents, some of whom are valuable backups.
The group includes running backs Emanuel Wilson and Chris Brooks, defensive ends Brenton Cox Jr. and Arron Mosby, safety Zayne Anderson, tight end Josh Whyle and offensive lineman Darian Kinnard.
The minimum the Packers can offer to retain a restricted free agent’s rights is $3.5 million. Wilson and Cox probably are the only ones in the running to receive a tender, but it’s possible none of the RFAs will. If they don’t receive a tender, they become free agents able to sign with anyone.
The Packers still would try to re-sign some of them if they do become free agents, but their depth would be in danger of being depleted since other teams might be willing to pay more.
Yet another consideration for how the Packers address free agency is the compensatory draft picks awarded to teams with significant free-agent losses. If Willis, both Walkers and Doubs were to sign lucrative contracts with other teams, the Packers would be in line for a nice haul of picks.
A team can receive a maximum of four, but if they were able to get a third-round draft pick along with a couple of others in the rounds that follow, it would put them in a good position going into the 2027 draft.
If the Packers sign a free agent, it would count against their net loss. The more they sign, the more it affects the value of the compensatory picks they’ll receive.
So, there’s a lot for the Packers to consider heading into free agency. Which paths they take in clearing cap space, signing free agents and managing the depth on their roster may change as free agency progresses.
The 2026 season soon will be underway.
This article originally appeared on Packers News: Packers can create salary-cap space to sign free agents, but will they?
Reporting by Tom Silverstein, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel / Packers News
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
