How the Packers can free up more than $90 million in cap space without cutting anyone
Brian Gutekunst and Russ Ball have a lot of financial flexibility heading into 2026.
The Green Bay Packers don’t necessarily have a comfortable cap situation, but it’s certainly much better than what it was three years ago. Despite big investments, like the contracts of Jordan Love and Micah Parsons, the financial situation is manageable.
At the moment, the Packers have 66 players under contract for 2026, and they are $1.436 million over the projected $303.5 million cap.
How the Packers can create cap space
The Packers don’t love to kick the can down the road, even though they did it when necessary during the twilight years of the Aaron Rodgers era. Now, with a desire to “ramp up the sense of urgency,” Green Bay could theoretically be more aggressive with its cap management.
Obviously, the Packers wouldn’t restructure everyone or add void years on every possible deal — that would create a massive financial burden in the near future. So, take this as an exercise in how the team can free up cap space now and what avenues there are to do it if there’s a big move out there.
How much the Packers save max restructuring every veteran player on the roster
- Elgton Jenkins, $14.16 million
- Rashan Gary, $13.92 million
- Aaron Banks, $13.108 million
- Xavier McKinney, $9.548 million
- Devonte Wyatt, $9.378 million
- Jordan Love, $7.748 million
- Josh Jacobs, $7.6 million
- Nate Hobbs, $5.788 million
- Zach Tom, $3.308 million
- Keisean Nixon, $2.56 million
- Christian Watson, $2.168 million
- Isaiah McDuffie, $1.628 million
- Brandon McManus, $1.52 million
- Micah Parsons, $1.137 million
That projection is made by Over The Cap and includes a scenario where you add void years on every veteran player that would save more than $1 million, including Devonte Wyatt, who’s playing on his fifth-year option.
In total, that would allow the Packers to create $93.571 million in cap space. This money doesn’t simply disappear, though — it would be moved to the future years. And that’s why teams (unless you’re the Philadelphia Eagles or New Orleans Saints) tend to be a little cautious with those restructures.
However, with consistent cap raises year after year, a dollar today is worth much more in terms of the cap percentage than a dollar next year. So, from a resource usage standpoint, it makes sense to explore this avenue — even if there’s risk of losing some flexibility with the roster in the long run.