The Green Bay Packers were under the cap after re-signing running back Chris Brooks and converting the majority of safety Xavier McKinney’s 2026 money into a signing bonus, which allows the Packers to spread those cap dollars over multiple seasons — saving them short-term cap space. Since then, though, Green Bay has traded for linebacker Zaire Franklin, re-signed linebacker Nick Niemann and re-signed center Sean Rhyan. While we don’t yet know the exact contract terms for Niemann and Rhyan, these
three moves have put the Packers over the salary cap heading into the new league year (March 11th). The team needs to get back under the cap before that date to become cap compliant.
According to ESPN’s Jeremy Fowler, the Packers will be doing so by doing a simple restructure of left guard Aaron Banks’ deal. This means the team will either touch his $7.7 million base salary or his $9.5 million signing bonus and simply turn it into a roster bonus, so those cap dollars hit in future years rather than 2026 (while nothing changes in terms of the cash that Banks is owed and the scheduling of those payments).
As we’ve written about before, Green Bay seems to be taking this pay-as-you-go approach this offseason, which gives them the option to squat on the Rashan Gary and/or Elgton Jenkins contracts if they so choose. With Rhyan re-signed, I doubt the team even wants Jenkins to return on a restructured contract (him taking less cash in 2026), as their starting five has been fortified. They’re probably just fishing for a potential trade on the Jenkins front, while Gary is a potential trade, release or restructure option moving forward.
Spotrac’s projections have Banks’ 2026 cap hit dropping from $24.8 million this year to $12 million, which is probably enough to get the team cap compliant (tough to know for certain because of the lack of Niemann/Rhyan details, but it should be enough). By saving short-term cap space, though, the team had added future dead cap on the deal. Spotrac’s numbers have Banks’ dead cap over his 2027 cap hit, meaning this isn’t a move to make a one-year commitment to Banks, but that he’s almost certainly going to be on the roster until at least 2028.
