A simplified look at the Packers defense as it relates to the salary cap

[RashanGary]

An estimated cap of 180M leaves roughly 90M for the defense

Z 20 (10 dead)
P 16 (8 dead)
Amos 10 (5 dead)
Clark 7 (21 dead)
Lowry 6 (3 dead)
Gary 4 (1 dead)
Alexander 4

67M tied up. Leaves 23m for the other 18 guys. So essentially no room for anyone else.


Had the cap not dropped for 3 years following the covid effect, the Packers had a little flexibility.


Clark's contract was done with the covid affect in mind. The price stays down and then goes way up later. King could be done the same way. In hindsight, I wish we had kept Fackrell for cheap over Preston. We could have fackrell and King for the price of just Preston.


But at the end of the day, the Packers are one of the teams really hit by covid and don't have much room to sign anyone, or even keep what they have without some creativity.

[RashanGary]

The Patriots are gonna dominate next year. They're a quality team. They have a ton of cap space when over half the league has hardly any. There are going to be cuts made all over the place and teams with the money are going to be able to exploit the situation.

[GB-Brandon]

You have to draft well!!!

[Joemailman]

Cap will be down about 20 million next year. But that's not the whole story. It will be 30-35 million lower than it would have been without Covid. Don't know if teams are going to restructure tons of contracts or if we'll see tons of releases in the spring.

[texaspackerbacker]

What is the $180 million? the current cap? or the current cap minus $20 million or so from the decrease some expect?

Answering my own question, Google says the current cap is $198.2 million, so the 180 is approximately what it would be with $20 million sliced off.

[texaspackerbacker]

Regarding the players you mentioned, RG, Preston and maybe Amos are the only ones it would make any sense to cut, and probably not Amos. Hindsight about not signing Preston does nothing but cause stress hahahaha. Anyway, we should be fine with drafting to replace him, given the fact that Gary and Z. Smith are still in the rotation. Also, I wouldn't count out Jonathan Garvin who has looked pretty good.

We also might even have enough left over to snag one or two prime cuts from other teams who might be in worse cap trouble.

[Bretsky]

Can we just trade away our 3rd round draft picks in the future ????????????

It seems like we keep drafting garbage there

[Joemailman]

What is the $180 million? the current cap? or the current cap minus $20 million or so from the decrease some expect?

Answering my own question, Google says the current cap is $198.2 million, so the 180 is approximately what it would be with $20 million sliced off.

Right. Current cap is 198M. For 2021 owners and NFLPA have agreed it won't go lower than 175M. Could go slightly higher depending on revenues. 180 is probably a good estimate.

[Joemailman]

Can we just trade away our 3rd round draft picks in the future ????????????

It seems like we keep drafting garbage there

I'll hold off criticizing Sternberger and DeGuara picks. They've had a tough time with injuries. But before that it's been grim.

2011: Alex Green
2014: Khyri Thornton
2014: Richard Rodgers
2015: Ty Montgomery
2016: Kyler Fackrell
2017: Montravius Adams
2018: Oren Burks

[RashanGary]

Unfortunately, by being one of the teams that had most of their money spent, this situation, the Covid cap situation, has put us in the group of teams that doesn’t have the ability to swoop in and capitalize

[RashanGary]

Had we not signed Z, P, Amos and Turner, we surely would have been worse the last year and this year as well, but we would have been one of the teams scooping up the JJ Watts and Michael Thomases of the up coming cap casualty year

[Joemailman]

Had we not signed Z, P, Amos and Turner, we surely would have been worse the last year and this year as well, but we would have been one of the teams scooping up the JJ Watts and Michael Thomases of the up coming cap casualty year

I'll be interested to see Watt this week. His stats are kind of ordinary. I don't know if he's diminished, or if he's betting double teamed a lot.

[Sparkey]

Watt would be a nice add by GB. Help the DLine and his salary next year now not guaranteed so if you can't work out an extension, no issue with the cap.

[GB-Brandon]

Might have to rip off the band-aid with some of these guys if they don’t start playing to their contracts. Thompson hardly ever did it but Gute showed he will with Nick Perry.

[Bretsky]

I'll hold off criticizing Sternberger and DeGuara picks. They've had a tough time with injuries. But before that it's been grim.

2011: Alex Green
2014: Khyri Thornton
2014: Richard Rodgers
2015: Ty Montgomery
2016: Kyler Fackrell
2017: Montravius Adams
2018: Oren Burks


I won't criticize the Sternberger pick because I like it as the time. With that being said,he's been a disappointment

But Holy Smokes what a bunch of Crap; we seem to often be guilty of falling in love with a guy (I'm guessing) and really overdrafting him in that round. That's what I thought we did this year in R3

[Bretsky]

I'll be interested to see Watt this week. His stats are kind of ordinary. I don't know if he's diminished, or if he's betting double teamed a lot.


I love Watt; I think he's very very good; just not elite anymore.

I'd take him in a second; but I sure wouldn't want him counting 17MIL against our cap

[GB-Brandon]

I won't criticize the Sternberger pick because I like it as the time. With that being said,he's been a disappointment

But Holy Smokes what a bunch of Crap; we seem to often be guilty of falling in love with a guy (I'm guessing) and really overdrafting him in that round. That's what I thought we did this year in R3

Yeah, I’m with you on Sternberger too. I didn’t want to go TE there but I thought he was good value there. I also liked the Ty Montgomery pick. I had Richard Rodgers going in the 6th-7th round. LOL. That was one hell of a reach!!

The rest were all complete head scratchers at the time.

[texaspackerbacker]

Unfortunately, by being one of the teams that had most of their money spent, this situation, the Covid cap situation, has put us in the group of teams that doesn’t have the ability to swoop in and capitalize

That doesn't describe the Packers - assuming they have the good sense to restructure Rodgers and cut some of the ones you mentioned.

I don't think the league is gonna let this presumed cap decrease mess with the current balance of the league or let it significantly help or hurt any particular teams. How they go about doing that, though, I don't know.

[SudsMcBucky]

Can we just trade away our 3rd round draft picks in the future ????????????

It seems like we keep drafting garbage there

Can we throw in our first round picks too?

[run pMc]

I won't criticize the Sternberger pick because I like it as the time. With that being said,he's been a disappointment

But Holy Smokes what a bunch of Crap; we seem to often be guilty of falling in love with a guy (I'm guessing) and really overdrafting him in that round. That's what I thought we did this year in R3

I liked the Jace pick, and I like Josiah but thought he was picked WAY too high (I liked him as a R5 pick). TE takes a while to click on the pro level, plus injuries will slow the development. The rest of that group is terrible-to-pedestrian, although Ty would actually be really good in this offense. Most of them I thought were ok picks at the time based on potential except for Khyri and DickRod - those were head scratchers. In fairness, he's had a decent career as a backup TE and just had a good game for the Iggles.

[RashanGary]

King is looking replaceable as the rest of the defense evolves into better zone players. Hes an odd duck in that he’s a pure man corner

Montravious Adams has played himself into a low end second contract of a couple few million per year. We can’t afford anyone expensive, but having a stable veteran DL core of Clark, Lowry, Adams and Keke to go along with a nice ball control offense opens the door for strong 4th quarter defense and a lot of victories

The really lucky hits on Barnes and Kamal should allow our defense to improve even without spending much money next season. As the season goes on and development becomes apparent, this topic is becoming a little more positive than negative as it was feeling just a couple weeks ago. Barnes was nice but kamal and Barnes is almost exciting. Cut kirksey, let king go, keep the cheap DL depth and i like our chances.

[RashanGary]

Because of development and a manageable cap situation even with Covid, the Packers, lead by Rodgers and Adams, definitely look like they’re one of the upper tier teams with staying power going forward.

[Zool]

I wasn't super thrilled with Martin yesterday. He trailed a lot of plays. Maybe he'll figure it out, but I'd rather have 10-12 healthy games of Kirksey and Barnes.

[RashanGary]

I wasn't super thrilled with Martin yesterday. He trailed a lot of plays. Maybe he'll figure it out, but I'd rather have 10-12 healthy games of Kirksey and Barnes.

Maybe
Barnes/kirksey when it’s run/pass situations
Barnes/Greene in pure pass situations

?

[Zool]

Maybe
Barnes/kirksey when it’s run/pass situations
Barnes/Greene in pure pass situations

?

I don't re-watch games enough to say for sure which is better. Martin was a training camp darling so there's hope?

[RashanGary]

I don't re-watch games enough to say for sure which is better. Martin was a training camp darling so there's hope?

I’m kind of with ya. Barnes looked sure of himself and attacking downhill on day 1. Kamal seems a little more hesitant. Kirksey looks slow, but at least steady. For this year, I think Barnes and Kirksey are best bets with Kamal being a guy who you can’t count out but I don’t think you can count on, as a rookie.

[Joemailman]

I wasn't super thrilled with Martin yesterday. He trailed a lot of plays. Maybe he'll figure it out, but I'd rather have 10-12 healthy games of Kirksey and Barnes.

It was the first football he's played in almost a year, so I'm sure some things weren't great. Still:


According to Pro Football Focus, Martin was the Packers’ second-highest graded defensive player against the Texans. Of his six tackles, three were considered stops, or a tackle constituting a failure for the offense.

On one play, Martin blew through the block attempt of tight end Darren Fells and helped stop David Johnson in the backfield. Later, he scraped down the line, shot into the gap and drilled Johnson in the hole after one yard.