He has finally emerged from the financial shadow of the Aaron Rodgers era, and with a newborn, mostly affordable roster, Green Bay Packers general manager Brian Gutekunst likes the position his team is in from a salary cap standpoint entering the 2025 offseason.
The Packers have the space and flexibility to retain free agents, re-sign newborn players and aggressively target veterans this offseason.
“I feel really good knowing that we can do whatever it takes to field a championship-level team,” Gutekunst said Thursday. “The opportunities that exist are currently unknown, we will see how it develops, but we are in a better position than we have been in the last 2-3 years.”
Gutekunst and Russ Ball carried out a quick and effective salary cap overhaul during the transition from the Rodgers era to the Jordan Love era at the point guard position.
“Russ does a fantastic job with our hat,” Gutekunst said. “All the decisions we’ve made over the last few years have put us in a position where we’re in pretty good shape right now. Again, we have to make good decisions… we have a lot of good players on rookie contracts right now. We need to make sure we can extend our relationship with these guys when the time comes.
According to Over the Cap, as of mid-January, the Packers have approximately $50 million in available space and just over $38 million in effective space. The dead money resulting from trading Rodgers and moving on from several veterans has mostly disappeared from the cap, freeing Gutekunst from having to make a series of salary conversions and cap tricks to secure his financial operating room this offseason.
Gutekunst said he would like to be in that position — having cap flexibility to be able to do different things — every offseason, rather than borrowing from the future as has been necessary amid pandemic-related challenges and trying to maintain the roster veterans around Rodgers, but he won’t avoid a situation where borrowing from the future is necessary to add elite, high-end players in unique situations.
Gutekunst made it clear that players like Josh Jacobs and Xavier McKinney – two free-agent signings who made the Pro Bowl in their first year in Green Bay – don’t appear often. And once they are available, he wants the Packers to be aggressive in acquiring them, regardless of the team’s situation.
“I feel like I approach every offseason like I have to attack aggressively,” Gutekunst said. “We’ll see what happens in free agency, who re-signs and who doesn’t, what the reasons for the salary cap will be. If it’s good for us, we will attack.”
Entering his third year with Love as the starting quarterback, Gutekunst said it was “time” for this group of Packers to start competing for championships. After providing valuable salary cap flexibility over the past few seasons, Gutekunst now has the opportunity to add some pieces that could assist the Packers get over the hump from good to great in 2025.
