The Green Bay Packers have relied a lot on rookie contracts over the past four years. No team in the NFL has had more volume of draft picks since 2022, meaning that general manager Brian Gutekunst has taken advantage of those inexpensive deals to build a top-heavy roster in terms of salary.

So, we’ll evaluate the best and worst contracts on the team. For the sake of this exercise, we will exclude rookie contracts. Quarterback Jordan Love and edge defender Micah Parsons could be here, but they are excellent players with elite contracts, so we focused on other pieces of the roster.

Best contracts

Christian Watson

It’s a one-year, $11 million deal. And it’s so good because Watson would have been a free agent without that short-term extension while he was still recovering from a torn ACL. The agreement gave the player more security to get back, while giving the team more flexibility. A player with a similar profile, Alec Pierce, got a four-year, $114 million ($28.5 million a year) from the Indianapolis Colts right ahead of hitting free agency, so the Packers clearly got great value. Now, Watson will realistically receive another extension, but at least he’s under control for one more year, which tends to favor team-friendlier contracts.

Zach Tom

Twelve tackles make more money on yearly average, and Tom signed his deal less than a year ago. That means the deal tends to look even better over the next few years, because Tom is one of the best right tackles in football and is only 27 — three of the five right tackles who make more money than him are 30 or older (Lane Johnson, Tytus Howard, and Taylor Moton). Tristan Wirfs (27) and Penei Sewell (26) are younger and get more money, but they are truly elite players and are much more expensive, around $28 million per season. 

Xavier McKinney

McKinney was projected to get something around $13 million in free agency, and the Packers gave him $16.75 million a year. That was perceived as an overpay by some, but McKinney proved to be a massive hit by the Packers. He’s been an All-Pro in each of his first two seasons in Green Bay, he’s still only 27, has two more years under contract, and is the seventh-highest paid safety in football. Kyle Hamilton reset the market making $25.1 million a year, so McKinney’s contract is a bargain.

Worst contracts

Aaron Banks

It always looked wild that the Packers were willing to give Banks a four-year, $77 million contract. First, because he’s a guard. Second, because he’s not an elite player or anything close to it. And also because it’s a very frontloaded contract, so it was hard to get out of the deal after one or two years. It’s very realistic that Banks will play out his deal, just because it was too expensive to move on in 2025, and then it becomes reasonable to keep him down the road. Banks is the ninth-highest paid guard in the NFL, and he’s played mostly as an average starter — a player who isn’t hard to replace with a cheaper option.

Devonte Wyatt

This is not necessarily about the player, nor how much money the Packers will pay him. It’s just about structure and cap hit. Wyatt will make $12.938 million in 2026, the value of his fully-guaranteed fifth-year option. That makes him the 27th highest-paid interior defensive lineman in the league, which is reasonable considering his role on the Packers. But because it’s the fifth-year option, the entire amount hits the cap at once in 2026. It’s possible, and even likely, that the Packers will give Wyatt an extension at some point in the offseason, allowing the team to have more cap flexibility and long-term security at a position where they’re already thin in terms of depth.

Sean Rhyan

The Packers inflated Rhyan’s yearly average to have a more favorable structure, so it’s not a bad plan at the end of the day. It’s mostly a one-year, $14 million contract, with two team options at $9 million in 2027 and $1 million in 2028. But it’s still an overpay based on his position. Rhyan is a starting-caliber center, but not much more than that, and now he’s the seventh-highest paid center. The overpay is more evident analyzing other non-Tyler Linderbaum centers who signed deals this offseason: Connor McGovern ($13.1 million), Tyler Biadasz ($10 million), and Cade Mays ($8.333 million). Ahead of free agency, Rhyan’s contract projections indicated he would get something around $6 million a year.

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