Packers' Early Report Card for Most Impactful Offseason Decisions
As has become yearly tradition, most of the early storylines to emerge from the Green Bay Packers' offseason have been about Aaron Rodgers.
While we wait to see if the veteran quarterback will be traded to the New York Jets, the Packers' financial and draft future is still largely undecided.
The 39-year-old has made it known that he would like to play for the Jets, and New York would like to make a trade happen.
That trade is going to be complex and hard to negotiate. Thus, it hasn't come to fruition yet.
While we continue the wait-and-see game, the Packers have made some decisions that don't relate to Rodgers for us to evaluate in free agency.
While it looks like Green Bay is headed to the Jordan Love era, here's a look at its most impactful decisions and report card based on how well each move suits the franchise moving forward.
RB Aaron Jones' Reworked Contract
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Aaron Jones is a perfect example of how complex the NFL's salary-cap rules and contracts can be and why it's important to have front-office staff who are dedicated to understanding it.
The 28-year-old was set to carry a cap hit of $16 million this season. It made him a potential cut candidate as the Packers are in a precarious cap situation because of the Rodgers deal and the potential trade that could wind up saddling them with a substantial dead-cap charge the next two seasons.
However, Green Bay got Jones to agree to a reworked deal that includes a $5 million pay cut and a restructure that will now cost $8.1 million against the cap this season.
On one hand, this is still kicking the cap-space conundrum with Jones down the road. His 2024 salary-cap number is now $17.7 million, even with the pay cut. In today's NFL you don't want to pay that much to a running back unless they are the crux of the offense.
The UTEP product isn't that. And with A.J. Dillon on the roster, there's a good case to be made that biting the bullet and cutting Jones would have been the best option.
But you can't fault a team for wanting to keep its star running back when it knows it could be handing the keys to an unproven quarterback. Jordan Love is in a better position to have success with Jones in the backfield.
Ultimately, it's a middle-of-the-road move.
Grade: B
Letting Allen Lazard and Robert Tonyan Walk
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We are putting these two moves together because they are going to be graded similarly.
With Aaron Rodgers apparently heading out of town, there's an opportunity to remold the pass-catching option in Green Bay, and it appears set on doing so.
In a vacuum, bringing back Allen Lazard would not have been a bad move. His ability to block will be missed, and he's a big-bodied downfield target who can make big plays. That's a skill set that is always going to be welcomed.
However, the draw for the 27-year-old in Green Bay was his incredible value. He's contributed for five years and never cost more than $4 million against the salary cap. Now, he's going to the New York Jets on a four-year, $44 million contract that features cap hits of $13.2 million in each of the last two seasons.
It's not that Lazard isn't a good receiver. He is. But it's going to be hard for him to outperform that number. He had the opportunity to become the No. 1 receiver in Green Bay this season and still didn't total over 1,000 yards.
Letting Robert Tonyan go is a sign the regime is simply ready for fresh options.
The 28-year-old had a good season in 2020 but hasn't come close to that production since. Letting him go to the Chicago Bears and clearing the way for a new tight end to lead the room was a wise decision.
Grade: A
Moving On from Aaron Rodgers
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There's no way around it. The decision to potentially trade Aaron Rodgers is the biggest one the Packers have made.
On the positive side, it is probably time. Based on Pro Football Reference's approximate value metric, he is the most valuable player the franchise has ever had. His presence on the roster has meant a relatively successful team on an annual basis for 15 years.
But every era must come to an end, and this actually might be a year too late. Had the organization decided to trade him last year, there would have been a robust market. Instead, they are essentially down to one team (the Jets), and Rodgers is coming off of a down-year instead of an MVP season.
Nothing can be done about that now, but letting the veteran continue the trend of forcing Green Bay to wait on a decision from him every offseason is not a viable path forward.
That being said, the Packers knew this was a possibility since last year and should have taken a more proactive approach to figuring out the parameters of a deal sooner. Now, the two sides appear to be at an impasse as neither wants to blink.
You can argue which team has more leverage. It's being done on every talking-head show on TV right now. But the fact is the longer it drags out the more both teams lose. The Packers have done next to nothing in free agency and are pretty much hamstrung until they know what the trade is going to look like.
The decision to move on from Rodgers gets an A. The approach to getting the trade done gets a D. The move as a whole lies somewhere in between.
Grade: C
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