The decision to apply a post-June 1st designation on a player isn't a simple one. The benefit is obvious: It creates more cap space in the current year. On the other hand, the space doesn't come until June 2nd, and there will still be dead money in the following season.

But that's the decision the Green Bay Packers made on off-ball linebacker De'Vondre Campbell, released in March right after the new league year began. So on Sunday, June 2nd, Green Bay will finally get the extra cap space of $10.573 million.

Money considerations

De'Vondre Campbell had signed a five-year, $50 million contract with the Packers in 2022. This year, he was slated to make $10.75 million, including a $2.9 million roster bonus if he was on the roster on March 15.

Now, the Packers will have $3.66 million of dead money in 2024, plus $7.97 million in 2025.

How does it work?

The post-June 1st designation was created so teams don't need to wait three months to release players and spread their dead money hits over two years. By doing that, a team also avoids eventual roster bonuses to become guaranteed, just like the Packers did with Campbell.

For the players, it's also better. They can move on and sign with another team. Campbell has agreed to a one-year, $5 million contract with the San Francisco 49ers.

When a player gets released in the NFL, every guaranteed money left on his contract will accelerate to immediately hit the cap. But that happens only between the end of the season and June 1st.

After that, the dead money projected to the current season hits the cap, but future considerations (eventual guaranteed money that hasn't been paid yet or prorations that have been paid but haven't hit the cap) are accelerated to the following year.

In the case of Campbell and the Packers, he didn't have any guaranteed money left, so the team won't pay anything else. But there is dead money because of signing and restructure bonuses paid while he was on the team that were prorated through the life of the deal. Those accelerations, though, will only come in 2025 since the Packers utilized the designation.

What can the Packers do?

The extra cap space is obviously not a surprise, and the team planned their offseason counting on that. So don't expect big moves after the extra space comes due.

However, the biggest available move might be a Jordan Love extension. Right now, Love is counting $12.757 million against the 2024 salary cap. Depending on the structure of the deal, and especially if the Packers don't want to heavily backload it, this hit will be higher after the extension gets done.

Jordan Love has been eligible to sign a new deal since May 3, a year after he signed his previous extension. De'Vondre Campbell getting off the books helps that deal to finally get done.

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De’Vondre Campbell played three seasons in Green Bay