Packers: Breaking down the 2019 salary cap before free agency

The Green Bay Packers should have plenty of cap room to start the offseason.

Free agency is just a couple of months away, and it’ll be important for general manager Brian Gutekunst to get it right for the Green Bay Packers to become a playoff team again in 2019.

According to Over The Cap, the Packers will have an estimated $40.52 million in cap room to work with this offseason. That’s a good starting point that puts the team in the top half of the league for cap room.

With that, the Packers will have enough to bring back a few of their own free agents and sign a couple of others. But if Gutekunst decides to free up more cap room, that’s also a possibility.

Using Over The Cap‘s salary cap calculator, by cutting Nick Perry and Jimmy Graham the Packers would have $48.2 million in cap room.

That number would jump up to $54.46 million by cutting Bryan Bulaga, although there’s good reason not to do that. While releasing Bulaga would free up over $6 million, Bulaga is one of the best right tackles in the league when healthy, and without him the offensive line would need a lot of work.

Some of that money will go to the Packers’ own free agents. Clay Matthews, Randall Cobb, Bashaud Breeland and Muhammad Wilkerson are all set to hit free agency when the new league year begins on March 13.

Green Bay likely won’t be able to bring all four back, but there’s a good chance two of the four return.

That’s before we include Jake Ryan, Lance Kendricks, Marcedes Lewis and restricted free agent Geronimo Allison.

It will be interesting to see how many free agents return this offseason. It’s possible the Packers will decide to move on from most of them, save the cap room and start fresh at a number of positions. A lot will depend on how each player fits into Matt LaFleur’s plans for the team moving forward.

It’s going to be an interesting offseason in Green Bay, but the team should have more than enough cap room to work with.