With only four of their nine 2020 NFL Draft picks signed to rookie contracts, the Green Bay Packers will need to dole out more money this offseason to bring their entire draft class in, including first-round pick, QB Jordan Love. In total, their draft haul is projected to cost around $8 million in full for its entirety, putting the team up against the salary cap.

Spotrac currently lists Green Bay as having just north of $13.5 million in cap space, and with their draft class coming in (most likely) around the $8 million mark, the team will have around $4 million and change to work with this year, which is not a lot. Their 2021 salary cap, which currently has around $30 million in space in it, will be even more up against the cap with how many of its star players are needing new deals after this season.

Left tackle David Bakhtiari and defensive tackle Kenny Clark are at the top of the list for the Packers in terms of importance to get on their next deals, but cornerback Kevin King, running back Aaron Jones, and center Corey Linsley are also due for their first big contracts of their careers. Wide receiver Davante Adams will be needing a new deal after next season, so the roster is going to be full of either A) expensive players continuing their careers in green and gold, or B) looking a whole lot different with some of the more noteworthy names having signed elsewhere.

But a crucial aspect of the current Green Bay roster is how certain position groups are utilizing young, cheap talent to give the front office the capabilities to throw more money around at other roster aspects.

For the team’s offensive line, right tackle Bryan Bulaga, who was in line for an extension that the Packers decided not to seriously offer, signed with the Los Angeles Chargers this offseason as they continue to revamp their offensive line in front of rookie signal-caller Justin Herbert. The former Iowa Hawkeye offensive lineman signed a three year, $30 million deal with the Chargers, saving GB in the financial department but also forced them to look elsewhere for a starting-caliber right tackle.

They found that help in former Detroit Lions right tackle Rick Wagner, the former Wisconsin Badger product who has come back home to the home of where he played collegiate football. Wagner signed a two-year deal worth $11 million in total, right around half of what Bulaga will be earning out west.

While Wagner can be looked at as a less-competent right tackle than what Bulaga brought to the table, he is more than serviceable and can act as a stop-gap option until the Packers bring in their right tackle of the future or decide to develop someone currently on their roster to serve that purpose.

The team also hit the offensive line depth hard in this year’s draft, using their three sixth-round selections all on hog mollies in the trenches. Michigan guard Jon Runyan Jr. (#192 overall), Oregon center Jake Hanson (#208), and Indiana guard Simon Stepaniak (#209) were the team’s three choices in the sixth round, adding cheap, developable talent to the offensive line room.

Between Runyan Jr., Hanson, and Stepaniak (both Runyan Jr. and Stepaniak have signed their rookie deals at the time of this article being written), these three are projected to account for just over $1.95 million, which is a steal for solid interior line depth. Add stout sophomore left guard Elgton Jenkins’ deal ($1.537M) into this, as well as Lane Taylor’s contract ($2.525M), and five solid offensive linemen combine for just over $6 million ($6,013,370).

While all three draftees project as interior offensive linemen, that shows that the team’s front office is not totally sure that Linsley will be back next year on a new deal, and they began to prep for his potential departure by bringing in one sure-fire interior option (Hanson) that can help address that loss.

Another aspect that these three interior pieces brings to the table is the ability to move swing tackle Billy Turner outside to right tackle if needed as well. With Bakhtiari and second-year left guard Jenkins holding down the left side and Linsley in the middle, the right side of the line is the group in question, with Turner and Taylor fighting over the starting RG role and Wagner in the pole position for the RT race.

Turner has disappointed ever since leaving Denver to come to Green bay, but his flexibility to be able to play all line positions (except center) gives him a leg up as being one of the first players called upon if in bench duty. That flexibility may make him a more likely option to start the year on the bench, giving Taylor the RG role, although Turner could easily be called upon if any of the four non-center members either struggle or face injuries.

Another positional group that Green Bay is saving money in is their tight ends, especially after the release of high-priced veteran Jimmy Graham. While Graham still counts for $3,666,668 in dead cap for the ‘20 season, the team was able to save $8 million through his release, freeing up some much-needed cap space.

Sophomore tight end Jace Sternberger is in line for no. 1 reps now, and the former Texas A&M Aggie is only owed $956,632 for this upcoming season, priming him for a great coming-out party this season. The highest-priced tight end on the roster ($2.3M) is long-time veteran Marcedes Lewis, who fills the role of solid blocker and stout veteran presence that can help give Sternberger, Robert Tonyan Jr., and rookie tight end/H-Back Josiah Deguara a good look into what it takes to make it in the NFL and stay there for a long time.

While Sternberger still has yet to show that he can handle the duties of a no. 1 tight end, he has the tools in his repertoire to take on that role, and he showed his abilities late in the season last year. Being looked at by a few different NFL analysts as one of the potential breakouts this year, the ball is in his court to follow through on that, and the fact that head coach Matt LaFleur has begun to transition his offense into a run-centric attack that mirrors (in some elements) what the San Francisco 49ers have, Sternberger is a player to keep a close eye on moving into in-person offseason workouts and training camps.

Sternberger was placed on the injured reserve last year, but was able to make his NFL debut after being activated November 2, and played in six regular-season games and both of the team’s postseason contests. While he did not make a reception until the postseason, he did manage to catch a touchdown in the disastrous NFC Championship game against the 49ers, showing that the trust that the coaching staff had put in him was paying off already in his first season.

The likelihood of Bakhtiari, Clark, King, Linsley, and Jones all being back on the Packers in 2021 and beyond is not super high, unfortunately, due to the sheer amount of money that each player is going to be looking to get for their next deals.

Laremy Tunsil reset the LT market with his three-year, $66 million deal he signed with the Texans this offseason, immediately driving up the prices for Bakhtiari’s next deal. Bakhtiari is currently tied for 12th-highest LT in the league with the Chiefs’ Eric Fisher at $12 million, so a deal that sits around $15 million per year for four years, something like a four-year, $50 million deal, would be a fair deal from the Packers for one of the better LTs in the league.

For Clark, he is looking to cash in on his dominance at such a young age, as he is only 24 years old. Aaron Donald leads the league’s DTs at $22.5M AAV, and Clark is good enough to at least start the conversation at that amount and see how far the Packers are willing to go. A five-year, $82 million deal would be very close to breaking the bank for the team, but would represent market value for the league’s best under-25 DT.

King, Linsley, and Jones are all above average in their respective positional groups, but neither of them are going to be commanding top dollar in their next deals. Darius Slay leads the CBs with an AAV north of $16 million, and King should be able to stay in GB on a 3/$20M deal; Linsley, if he were to resign, should be able to eclipse his current AAV (but not by much), coming in at 4/$33M; finally, for Jones, the RB market is so skewed that he will have a tough time getting his fair, market value, but something like 4/$28M should be a fair deal and one that he would be comfortable signing, especially with his comments about wanting to remain with the Packers.

The Packers have a ton of big financial decisions coming up very soon for them, and with the likely salary cap ramifications coming down with the pandemic decreasing fan interactions and league profits, the team could be forced to choose which players they want to stay and be forced to send others on their way.