The Packers have one swing left on a compensatory free agent
· Yahoo Sports
It’s hard to know without exact contract details, but the Green Bay Packers probably have a little room between them and the ceiling of the salary cap now that they’ve done a simple restructure of left guard Aaron Banks. Not enough to go on a spending spree, but enough to add one more modestly priced free agent, which might be the exact market the Packers are in.
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As we wrote about earlier this week, Green Bay is expected to protect its four compensatory draft picks (which it will receive in 2027), based on how it has acted when they’ve been in similar positions in the past. The Packers are expected to receive two third-round picks for the losses of Malik Willis and Rasheed Walker and two fourth-round picks for the losses of Romeo Doubs and Quay Walker in free agency.
If you’re a fan of offseason action, the good news is that Green Bay can only be awarded up to four compensatory draft picks in the same free agency cycle, so any lower-scaled compensatory free agents leaving (players for whom the Packers wouldn’t be able to claim a comp pick) could be offset without the team facing any negative consequence.
The prime candidates for this, going into the offseason, were defensive end Kingsley Enagbare and center Sean Rhyan. With Rhyan back, they have one swing left on a compensatory free agent who would not offset the team’s top-four picks. Essentially, look for them to roughly cancel out whatever Enagbare’s contract is in free agency with an addition of their own. After that, the cost of compensatory free agents will also come with the cancellation of at least a fourth-round pick, which is not the business that the Packers have been in for basically the entire existence of the compensatory draft pick formula.
Short and sweet: Green Bay will probably match the Enagbare loss with a ballpark equal contract for a player who hit free agency via an expiring contract. Beyond that, the Packers will probably operate mostly in the cap casualty market (as these players aren’t compensatory free agents and do not count against the compensatory pick formula) or the trade market (which again doesn’t count against the compensatory pick formula, and the team has already hit this once with the trade of linebacker Zaire Franklin).
Here are some names that make some sense. As far as the Enagbare offset goes, maybe the team could look for former Jonathan Gannon nose tackles like Khyiris Tonga or Roy Lopez, or even cornerback Cam Taylor-Britt, who has been on the Packers’ radar for some time now. In the cap casualty market, two former Gannon nose tackles, Dalvin Tomlinson and Javon Hargrave (who wasn’t a nose in Philadelphia but was a nose last year in Minnesota), are possibilities too. Look for Green Bay’s additions to be more along those lines than Trey Hendrickson or Alec Pierce as they try to manipulate the comp pick system, a common theme under general manager Brian Gutekunst’s tenure.