- Joined
- May 8, 2002
- Posts
- 1,129,651
- Reaction score
- 59
A quick but important update on Xavier McKinney's contract extension: According to additional reporting from Jeremy Fowler of ESPN, the Green Bay Packers are converting base salary AND roster bonus into a signing bonus, and McKinney's new cap number for the 2026 season will fall below $10 million.
What does this mean, exactly? The Packers executed a max void restructure on McKinney. This requires converting the maximum base salary and roster bonus into a signing bonus and tacking on three void years to provide the full five years of cap proration, drastically lowering the 2026 cap number while pushing most of the cap dollars into the future.
In even more specific terms: the Packers got as much savings as possible on McKinney's contract -- around $9.2 million -- for the 2026 season.
Ken Ingalls shows how this conversion/void years mechanism could have dropped McKinney's cap number from over $19 million to just under $10 million in 2026:
Per Ingalls, this restructure would save the Packers $9,228,000 million on the salary cap this season, immediately making them salary cap compliant before the start of the new league year, which arrives next week.
Converting base salary to signing bonus would drop McKinney's base salary to $1,215,000, the league minimum for a player with six years experience. The Packers also converted his $8.5 million roster bonus that was due the third day of the new league year. Altogether, the Packers converted a little over $11.5 million into a signing bonus. This money can then be prorated over five years.
How do the void years work? The three extra years are just placeholders, and the deal officially voids following the 2027 season, accelerating the prorated money onto the 2028 cap as dead money. McKinney will cost the Packers at least $6.9 million on the cap in 2028 whether he's playing in Green Bay or not. The void years are only necessary for proration purposes.
In 2027, McKinney's cap number will balloon to almost $25 million. But that's a problem for another day in Green Bay.
Nothing financially changes for McKinney, but the Packers get much needed cap savings in 2026 by pushing cap dollars into the future for an All-Pro player who will likely be an extension candidate come 2027.
This article originally appeared on Packers Wire: Packers do max restructure on Xavier McKinney, clear over $9M off 2026 cap
Continue reading...
What does this mean, exactly? The Packers executed a max void restructure on McKinney. This requires converting the maximum base salary and roster bonus into a signing bonus and tacking on three void years to provide the full five years of cap proration, drastically lowering the 2026 cap number while pushing most of the cap dollars into the future.
In even more specific terms: the Packers got as much savings as possible on McKinney's contract -- around $9.2 million -- for the 2026 season.
Ken Ingalls shows how this conversion/void years mechanism could have dropped McKinney's cap number from over $19 million to just under $10 million in 2026:
Per Ingalls, this restructure would save the Packers $9,228,000 million on the salary cap this season, immediately making them salary cap compliant before the start of the new league year, which arrives next week.
Converting base salary to signing bonus would drop McKinney's base salary to $1,215,000, the league minimum for a player with six years experience. The Packers also converted his $8.5 million roster bonus that was due the third day of the new league year. Altogether, the Packers converted a little over $11.5 million into a signing bonus. This money can then be prorated over five years.
How do the void years work? The three extra years are just placeholders, and the deal officially voids following the 2027 season, accelerating the prorated money onto the 2028 cap as dead money. McKinney will cost the Packers at least $6.9 million on the cap in 2028 whether he's playing in Green Bay or not. The void years are only necessary for proration purposes.
In 2027, McKinney's cap number will balloon to almost $25 million. But that's a problem for another day in Green Bay.
Nothing financially changes for McKinney, but the Packers get much needed cap savings in 2026 by pushing cap dollars into the future for an All-Pro player who will likely be an extension candidate come 2027.
This article originally appeared on Packers Wire: Packers do max restructure on Xavier McKinney, clear over $9M off 2026 cap
Continue reading...
