Packers nearing $50M in dead money on salary cap entering new league year

The Green Bay Packers battled through the 2023 season with $65 million in dead money charges on the salary cap, and Matt LaFleur’s team will have another significant dead money hurdle in 2024.

Entering the new league year, the Packers have almost $50 million in dead money on the cap — and releasing linebacker De’Vondre Campbell on Wednesday will only add more.

According to Over the Cap, the Packers currently rank second in the NFL in dead money on the cap in 2024 at $46,556,149. Only the Minnesota Vikings — at $57,365,208 — have more.

Part of the issue is releasing veterans with prorated guaranteed money. The other is the use of void years.

The Packers released left tackle David Bakhtiari and running back Aaron Jones, contributing over $31 million in dead money charges in 2024. The Packers are also counting Darnell Savage and Rasul Douglas at over $10 million combined on the cap this year, and neither will play in Green Bay.

Here’s the list of dead money charges for the Packers:

David Bakhtiari: $19,083,017
Aaron Jones: $12,355,000
Darnell Savage: $5,456,800
Rasul Douglas: $5,102,668
Yosh Nijman: $2,543,200
Keisean Nixon: $1,480,000
Matt Orzech: $200,000

Releasing Campbell as a post-June 1st cut on Wednesday will push the Packers over $50 million.

Dead money hurts because cap dollars are a precious team-building asset wasted on players no longer on the roster (except for Nixon, who is re-signing).

Think of it this way: the Packers’ dead money cap charge of around $50 million would equal the fourth biggest cap hit in the NFL in 2024. Or another way: Roughly 20 percent of the Packers’ salary cap is essentially gone as the result of dead money.

Then again, dead money is just an NFL reality these days. As of Wednesday morning, 13 teams have $20 million or more in dead cap charges, and that number will only grow.

Slowly, the Packers are cleaning up their books after trying to keep a championship team together through the COVID years. The 2024 season will be another season of dead money pain, but the books start to look much better in 2025.