Packers Cap Casualties: Roster/option bonus dates that matter in 2026

Deadlines spur action, so I wanted to take a look at some key dates for some Green Bay Packers roster decisions this offseason. In total, eight of Green Bay’s veteran contracts have 2026 option bonuses or roster bonuses in their deals. What this means is that players will receive paydays early on in the offseason, which essentially forces teams to declare whether they want to keep a player at his current rate or cut the player early on in the free agency process.

Every agent’s nightmare is the Jaire Alexander scenario from last offseason, where the Packers held onto Alexander’s contract through June 9th, while league-wide cap space was eaten up by players who were allowed to hit the market. The primary concern of agents is to make it hard for teams to pull the trigger on a release. Their secondary concern is to force teams to pull that trigger early, so that their clients can at least hit a stronger market in March rather than have to wait for what’s left of the league-wide cap space post-draft.

So, with all of that in mind, let’s take a look at potential pressure point dates for Green Bay.

Jordan Love, QB

On the fifth day of the new league year (March 15th), $20 million of Love’s 2027 compensation will be guaranteed. The day after (March 16th), the Packers must decide whether to give Love a $39.5 million option bonus or move on from him. They will be picking both of those up, barring unforeseen circumstances.

Aaron Banks, LG

On the third day of the new league year (March 13th), Banks is due for a $9.5 million roster bonus. If the Packers decide to move on from Banks with a release, it will be before that date.

On paper, Banks has a cap hit of $24.8 million and a dead cap of $20.25 million in 2026. So Green Bay would only save $4.3 million on the cap this year with a release of Banks before his roster bonus date. That $20.25 million in dead cap is just the remaining prorated years of his $27 million signing bonus from last season ($6.75 million is paid off, cap-wise, each season that he’s on the team).

If the Packers choose to keep Banks on the roster, through his bonus being picked up, then the $9.5 million bonus will be added to his dead cap in 2026. There is the potential that Green Bay could trade Banks later than that roster bonus date, but it’s unlikely. Teams in highly-leveraged cap situations, like the Philadelphia Eagles in the past, have previously eaten money on deals that they do not want remaining on their books to turn a player into an asset for another club.

So while Green Bay would be taking on $30 million in dead cap for trading Banks after his roster bonus is picked up, it would end up saving them $8.6 million in cash in 2026 (and clear their books of the Banks deal moving forward, as long as he’s a pre-June 1st trade). A team that trades for Banks could also get him on what amounts to an $8.6 million, one-year deal with two team options tagged onto the end.

It would be a tough pill to swallow, giving up 2026 cap space to make the Packers’ 2027 and 2028 cap reality better (Banks is due $29.5 million in cash over those two seasons and will still carry $13.5 million in dead cap in 2027 if he’s kept), but that’s probably the only way to get any draft compensation back for Banks, a deal that isn’t panning out right now.

Again, the Packers haven’t really gone into the eating-cash-to-turn-a-bad-contract-into-an-asset market, unless you want to count that Green Bay paid Kenny Clark a 2025 roster bonus before trading him to the Dallas Cowboys, but it is an option.

Zach Tom, RT

He’s not going anywhere, but Tom is going to receive a $3 million roster bonus on the third day of the new league year (March 13th). His dead cap, before the roster bonus, is $24.16 million in 2026, while his cap hit is just $12.09 million. Again, he’s not going anywhere.

Micah Parsons, DE

Parsons isn’t going anywhere, but he has a $38 million option bonus due on the fifth day of the new league year (March 15th). Technically, it is easier to trade Parsons than you’d think, with the way the Packers structured this deal, but it’s just absolutely not happening.

Isaiah McDuffie, LB

McDuffie is going into the final year of his two-year extension in 2026. He has the smallest roster bonus of any player on this list, $750,000 that will need to be picked up by the third day of the new league year (March 13th). Releasing McDuffie before that date will save the team $3.7 million in cap space. If McDuffie is paid that bonus, he can be traded to another team on a one-year deal that will have him make $1.275 million in salary, $450,000 in per-game roster bonuses and a $100,000 workout bonus. In the grand scheme of things, the McDuffie roster bonus doesn’t mean much, either way.

McDuffie might be a better fit somewhere else, though, than in Jonathan Gannon’s scheme, where the linebackers absolutely need to have above-average movement skills.

Nate Hobbs, CB

Hobbs is in a similar situation to Banks, where I think he could actually get traded under the right circumstances, depending on how tolerable losing 2026 cap space for the sake of 2027 and 2028 is to the team. I know that Hobbs left money on the table to sign with Green Bay, in part because he wanted to be back in a building with Rich Bisaccia.

As it stands right now, the Packers would save only $838,235 in cap space by moving on from Hobbs before his $6.25 million roster bonus triggers on the third day of the new league year (March 13th). After that, though, the defender will only carry a $1.8 million base salary, $600,000 in per-game roster bonuses and a $400,000 workout bonus in 2026 for a team trading for him.

I believe Green Bay made a bad self-scouting decision when they turned in the Hobbs contract. He was a slot defender going into free agency. He was paid like a slot defender. I don’t think the team believed that Evan Williams would end up being the starter at safety and that Javon Bullard would end up being the starter in the slot in 2025. Now they have one too many slot defenders.

Hobbs should still have a market as a slot defender (he was good in limited reps in 2025!), and a team trading for him would only be on the hook for (up to) a $2.8 million, one-year deal with what amounts to two team options tagged onto the end of the deal. If the Packers have the stomach to eat the $15.3 million dead cap figure ($6.5 million 2026 roster bonus plus the dead cap remaining from his 2025 prorated signing bonus), then the Hobbs deal can probably be turned into a pretty decent asset for a contending defense that is looking for a starting-caliber nickel defender and is in a cap crunch.

Xavier McKinney, S

I don’t think this is the majority opinion of Packers fans, but some Green Bay supporters think the team should trade McKinney to free up playing time for the cheaper Evan Williams and Javon Bullard long-term, while picking up draft assets. I put the chance of that happening at less than one percent.

McKinney has an $8.5 million roster bonus due on the third day of the new league year (March 13th), so if there is a McKinney trade, it would likely happen before then. The Packers would save $7.6 million in cap space by moving off McKinney before that date, but they would lose cap space by trading McKinney after March 13th.

Brandon McManus, K

If the Packers do move off kicker Brandon McManus, who has a $5.3 million cap hit and $3.3 million dead cap this year, it’ll happen before his $1 million roster bonus kicks in on the third day of the new league year (March 13th). Once that bonus is paid, Green Bay would only save $1 million in cap space by moving off McManus in 2026.

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