Packers will have a lot of salary cap work to do in 2022 offseason

A reduced salary cap in 2021 has caused many teams to make roster moves to create space, including the Green Bay Packers.

But if you’re hoping for the Packers to be in a much stronger position with the cap next year, there’s some bad news.

ESPN’s Dan Graziano reported this week that the cap ceiling for the 2022 season will be $208.2 million. While that would be an increase on this season’s number, the Packers have a lot of big contracts next year and beyond.

According to Over The Cap, the Packers currently have $237 million committed to next season’s cap, which is already considerably higher than the cap ceiling. That’s before we factor in any players they will potentially re-sign like Davante Adams, whose contract is up in the offseason, or the 2022 draft class.

It’s going to require some serious work from Brian Gutekunst and Russ Ball to get the Packers back into a healthy position.

First of all, they could potentially roll over some cap space into 2022 if they have any available to do so. They will likely then need to release players to create cap space, as well as work on more contract restructures and/or extensions.

The Packers aren’t alone in this. Many teams face a similarly difficult situation in the upcoming year. But as things stand, no team has more money committed to next season’s salary cap than the Packers.

This is the problem with restructuring deals. It pushes money out into future years. For Green Bay, some of this year’s roster moves have created cap space in the short term but only push the problem into future years.

But next year, the team will likely need to make even more of these moves to create space with the hope that the salary cap will increase in future years.

I’m just glad I’m not the GM.