The Green Bay Packers need to shed around $50 million of cap space – and possibly even $20 million more if the team wants to use the franchise tag on receiver Davante Adams – by the start of the new league year on March 16.
Unless the Packers want to cut a bunch of veteran players and begin a mini-rebuild, various salary cap mechanics will need to be used to get the team under the cap by next month.
The most obvious mechanic: converting base and roster bonuses into signing bonuses. This is an attractive salary-cap maneuver because the team can spread expensive one-time payments on the cap over several years, which pushes money into the future but also lessens the strain on the cap this year.