Packers Likely to Cut $40 Million All-Pro After Douglas Trade
Anew day has dawned on the Green Bay Packers organization, and general manager Brian Gutekunst is doing everything short of shouting that from a mountain top to let the world know.
In the last 19 months the Packers traded the best wide receiver in the NFL (Davante Adams), one of the greatest quarterbacks of all-time (Aaron Rodgers) just one regular season after he won an MVP Award, and a beloved teammate and locker room leader in cornerback Rasul Douglas.
ESPN’s Dan Graziano wrote on November 3 that former Pro-Bowl running back Aaron Jones is a likely cap casualty next offseason. He probably won’t be alone in that regard considering the onerous contract of left tackle David Bakhtiari.
“Jones will have one year left after this season on a deal he had to rework this past offseason to avoid being cut. The Packers would save $11.45 million next year in cap space if they made him a post-June 1 cut,” Graziano wrote. “David Bakhtiari is the most obvious cap-saving move for Green Bay, but his circumstances are different and well-publicized.”
David Bakhtiari’s Contract with Packers Among Worst in NFL Considering Injuries
GettyLeft tackle David Bakhtiari of the Green Bay Packers.
Bakhtiari played one game in 2023 before knee issues knocked him out for the season. The knee in question is the same one in which he tore an ACL in late 2020. That injury sidelined Bakhtiari for all but one contest the following year and played a factor in the left tackle suiting up for just 11 of 17 games in 2022.
When healthy, Bakhtiari has been a perennial All-Pro selection (every year between 2016-2020) and one of the best tackles in football. However, over the past several years the Packers have been paying Bakhtiari for what he has already done, not what he is going to do.
Green Bay didn’t create those circumstances intentionally. This isn’t an L.A. Lakers/Kobe Bryant at the end of his career kinda thing. But come season’s end, the team will have paid Bakhtiari three full years of a four-year, $92 million contract to suit up in just 13 regular season games. That’s the sort of math that makes winning in the NFL next to impossible.
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