The Packers just saw their salary cap space get bigger for the 2024 NFL season.
The Green Bay Packers greeted the second day of June with some significant cap space. It can be recalled that when Green Bay decided to part ways with linebacker De'Vondre Campbell, the team designated him as a post-June 1 release.
That meant $10.57 million worth of cap space for the Packers for the upcoming 2024 NFL season, as pointed out by Paul Bretl of Packers Wire.
“Coming into the 2024 offseason, Campbell still had three years left on his deal with the Packers and came with a $14.23 million cap hit. Had the Packers released Campbell without a post-June 1st designation, they would have had to absorb his entire $11-plus million dead cap hit on the 2024 salary cap.”
But since the Packers chose to make Campbell a post-June 1 release, that cap hit on Campbell will be shouldered by Green Bay through the next couple of seasons. In 2024, Green Bay will have a dead cap hit related to Campbell worth $3.657 million. In 2025, that amount will be at $7.971 million. For what it's worth, the biggest dead cap hit for the Packers for the 2024 campaign comes from former Green Bay star left tackle David Bakhtiari ($19.065 million) followed by ex-Packers running back Aaron Jones ($12.438 million). Bakhtiari remains a free agent while Jones signed a one-year deal with one of Green Bay's NFC North division rivals, the Minnesota Vikings.
As for Campbell, it did not take him much time before he found a new landing spot after his release from the Packers last March. Just days later, he secured a one-year contract worth $5 million with the San Francisco 49ers. In three years with the Packers, Campbell, who will be turning 31 in July, racked up four interceptions, a defensive touchdown, nine passes defended, two forced fumbles, 2.0 sacks, and 317 combined tackles (204 solo) through 40 games. In 2021, his first year with the Packers, Campbell earned his first (and so far, only) First-Teal AP All-Pro nod.
Packers have hefty cap space for 2024 NFL season
Factoring in the extra financial legroom brought about by Campbell's release, the Packers have a team cap space of $30.381 million at the moment, per Over The Cap. That makes Green Bay as the team with the seventh-biggest cap space for the 2024 NFL season at the time of this writing. Only the New England Patriots, Washington Commanders, Detroit Lions, Arizona Cardinals, Jacksonville Jaguars, and Las Vegas Raiders have bigger salary cap spaces than the Packers, who still have not offered quarterback Jordan Love an extension.
It will be interesting to see how and where the Packers will be using their spacious cap space. Perhaps the biggest narrative to link to that is Love's potential extension deal with Green Bay. Love passed his test in his Year 1 as a full-blown starter for the Packers, thus raising his chances for a huge payday from the Packers. He is set to earn just $12.757 million in the 2024 NFL season, a bargain considering his body of work in 2023.
In Green Bay's first season of the post-Aaron Rodgers era, Love passed for 4,159 yards and 32 touchdowns with 11 interceptions on a 64.2 percent completion rate through 17 starts. Not many expected Green Bay to make the playoffs right away after parting ways with Rodgers, but that's exactly what Love and company did last season, even beating the Cowboys in the wild-card round before getting eliminated by the San Francisco 49ers in the divisional portion of the playoffs.
