Twice in the last four years of Aaron Rodgers’ Green Bay career, the Packers signed him to top of the market contract extensions to try and squeeze one more Super Bowl run out of the sure fire Hall of Fame quarterback. The deals also forced the front office into the practice of restructuring other veteran contracts to stay under the current year salary cap. Money was pushed forward into the future with voidable years added on to the deals. On Monday, the Packers decided to void the final years with three players, All Pro kick returner Keisean Nixon, starting safety Darnell Savage and offensive tackle Yosh Nijman. Those three have now become unrestricted free agents well ahead of the NFL free agency period set to begin on March 11. If the Packers don’t resign them, they’ll have roughly 10 million dollars of dead cap money to deal with in 2024. It’s not a foregone conclusion those players won’t be back. The Packers voided final years recently with De’Vondre Campbell and Robert Tonyan before re-signing them. Nixon might be the most valuable player to retain after leading the league in kickoff returns in each of the past two seasons. Savage came back in 2023 on his fifth year, first round pick option year but the safety position might be in line for an overhaul heading into this off-season. Nijman was given a chance to earn the starting left tackle position after David Bakhtiari was lost for the year with a knee injury on opening day. Nijman split time with Rasheed Walker until the second year pro from Penn State took over the job down the stretch. Bakhtiari’s contract situation is also delicate with a huge cap number for 2024 and that could impact the desire to retain Nijman as a reserve.
The Franchise Tag window opens across the NFL Tuesday afternoon at 3:00 PM CDT. It will remain open until March 5. Teams can lock up unrestricted free agents with the one year tag but it comes at a cost. Tagged players receive contracts equal to the average of the top 5 players at their respective position. The Packers have routinely shied away from applying franchise tags in the past.
The Packers have also reportedly hired a new Strength and Conditioning Coordinator after moving on from Chris Gizzi at the end of the season after 10 years with the club. Green Bay is bringing aboard Aaron Hill who spent the past five years as the assistant Strength and Conditioning coach with the San Francisco 49ers.
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