Four Packers impactful players are quietly positioned for a 2026 raise without even putting ink to paper
Tight end Tucker Kraft, wide receiver Dontayvion Wicks, defensive tackle Karl Brooks, and cornerback Carrington Valentine are slated for a raise next year.
The Green Bay Packers have built their team with a multitude of draft picks over the past four years. As a consequence, young players have seen many snaps and took advantage of it with real roles within the roster. The 2023 draft class is a great example, with several contributors.
Now, it’s time for the Packers to pay up for that usage.
Four players are slated to receive Proven Performance Escalators in 2026
The NFL created a rule to properly recognize players that had impactful roles during their rookie contracts in the league. In the fourth and final season of a rookie deal, there’s a provision called “Proven Performance Escalator (PPE),” with three levels — the first two are based on playing time, and the third is for a player named to the Pro Bowl on the original ballot during his first three years in the league.
Tight end Tucker Kraft, wide receiver Dontayvion Wicks, defensive tackle Karl Brooks, and cornerback Carrington Valentine are slated for a raise next year. Colby Wooden would still have a shot, but he would have to compensate for the lack of snaps in his first two seasons now in Year 3.
All of these four players mentioned should qualify to the first level. Tucker Kraft would certainly reach the second level (more playing time) and likely the third level as a Pro Bowler, but the knee injury that ended his season affected both parameters.
Kraft has a projected base of $1.455 million next year, while the other three would be slated to earn $1.145 million. Their salaries should jump to something around $3.7 million, a reasonable projection of the original round tender for restricted free agents — which is also the new compensation for Level 1 of the PPE. There’s still a scenario where the Packers reach an early extension with Kraft, for example, but that PPE raise would still apply.
The good news is that those players will be properly compensated for their efforts. The bad news for the Packers is that the raise has a serious impact on the team’s salary cap, with $9.91 million in extra spending.
The Packers are already in a tight cap situation. So far, the team is projected by Over the Cap to have $10.263 million in cap space for 2026, and that’s before the PPE, before the draft class, and with only 41 players under contract. However, the number doesn’t consider the rollover from the 2025 cap and potential releases and restructures.
The decision to trade for and extend Micah Parsons made the team’s financial situation a little bit harder — but it’s good to pay good players, and Green Bay has a lot of flexibility to keep improving the roster, despite some tough decisions ahead.
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