It’s finally official. The NFL notified its teams on Wednesday morning that it had settled a salary cap for the 2021 season, and as expected, it was fairly close to the lowest possible number as announced a few weeks ago.
According to multiple league insiders, the base limit is $ 202.5 million for 2021.
For the Green Bay Packers, that means their adjusted cap number, which includes revenue from 2020 and other adjustments, is $ 186,174,018. With the Packers’ Top 51 contracts (plus dead money), there are currently $ 191,497,057 according to Overthecap.com, which currently has $ 9,426,181 over their hood.
The Packers have seven days to refurbish the amount of money from their books for the upcoming season. Teams must be under the cap number when the new league year starts at 16:00 Eastern on Wednesday 17 March.
As capitalization comes in at the bottom, this means that the urgency for Packers to find contract adjustments – and probably to make veteran cuts – is increasing a bit. The Packers may have to separate from players like Preston Smith and Dean Lowry, while Aaron Rodgers could get the chance to restructure his deal to move money in 2022 and beyond. The team also surely wants to extend Davante Adams’ contract, which ends after the upcoming season, and can thus release an amount of 2021 per year.
Keep in mind that the Packers need to get considerably at some point under the cap. The Top 51 rule – which states that teams only need to count the 51 highest competition numbers in the off-season – disappears at the start of the regular season. In addition, the team needs space to draw their draft choices and to use tenders on agents with limited and exclusive rights.
Expect the news about these moves to start creeping in this week before escalating over the weekend and early next week.