On Friday, the Green Bay Packers made a quiet but significant transaction that will affect the team’s salary cap in the next few years. According to ESPN’s Field Yates, the Packers converted a significant portion of Aaron Rodgers’ offseason roster bonus into a signing bonus, allowing the team to spread the salary cap hit of that money over several years.
The bonus due Rodgers in March is $19.5 million, but the team paid out $14.26 million this week. That means that one-fifth of that number, or about $2.85 million, will go on the Packers’ cap each year from 2019 through 2023 instead of all going against the cap in 2020.