Getty Packers head coach Matt LaFleur.
The Green Bay Packers could have tough decisions to make regarding a few of their veteran defensive starters heading into the 2024 offseason, one of which could involve the departure of former All-Pro linebacker De’Vondre Campbell.
Campbell has struggled to live up to the value of the five-year, $50 million contract extension the Packers handed him following his outstanding All-Pro season in 2021. He has missed six games due to injury and could miss a seventh if he is unable to return for Week 18’s regular-season finale against the Chicago Bears with the playoffs on the line.
With Quay Walker and Isaiah McDuffie playing well in his absence, Matt Schenidman of The Athletic believes that Campbell will be on the chopping block after the season.
“[Jordan] Love signs a four-year, $180 million extension. [AJ] Dillon leaves in free agency. Campbell and [David] Bakhtiari get cut,” Schneidman projected in his weekly Packers mailbag on January 3, answering a question about key Packers’ futures.
De’Vondre Campbell No Longer Essential for Packers
Campbell once felt like a long-awaited solution for the Packers defense. During his first season in 2021, he brought a stabilizing presence to the middle linebacker spot and played at a first-team All-Pro level, all while playing on a one-year, $2 million deal. And the Packers appreciated it enough to sign him to a five-year, $50 million extension.
Still, Packers general manager Brian Gutekunst hedged his best almost immediately, using his first of two first-round draft picks in the 2022 NFL draft on Walker, a star for Georgia’s national championship team. The initial plan appeared to be for the Packers to insert Walker as the No. 2 linebacker alongside Campbell, but it took less than one season for Walker to earn himself a larger share of the snaps.
Jump forward to the final week of 2023 and Walker is unquestionably the Packers’ top linebacker. McDuffie, a sixth-round pick in 2021, has also been playing well in relief of Campbell while he has been recovering from a neck injury. If the Packers feel steady about the two of them moving forward, they might decide Campbell is expendable.
According to Over the Cap, the Packers can clear roughly $10.7 million in cap space if they make Campbell a post-June 1 release in 2024. They would be responsible for about $10 million in dead money over the next three seasons, but it might be a cost they are comfortable paying if they want to avoid his $12 million-plus cap hits through 2026.
Which Others Packers Could Be Gone in 2024?
De’Vondre Campbell is not the only Packers veteran who could potentially be on the outs in 2024. Schneidman touched on it in his mailbag, but it also appears that Bakhtiari — a five-time All-Pro — could be heading toward a divorce with the Packers.
Bakhtiari has been phenomenal when he has been able to play throughout his Packers career, and Green Bay would almost certainly love to keep him if they felt he could rely on his availability. Unfortunately, the Packers have likely run out of patience with his knee, which has remained unreliable and has kept him out of 38 games — not counting the playoffs — since he first injured it on New Year’s Eve 2020.
Bakhtiari played exactly one game in 2023 before injuring his knee and being forced to undergo season-ending knee surgery again. At a certain point, the Packers have to cut their losses and move him off the payroll, especially with his cap hit set to jump above $40 million next season. They can save about $20 million in 2024 if they cut him.
The other veteran in question is running back Aaron Jones. While Jones has also dealt with injury troubles in 2023, he has reminded everyone in recent weeks that, when he is on the field, he is a difference-maker for the offense. Jones’ cap number is due to rise to about $17 million next season, but the Packers also have about $6.63 million more owed to him in 2025 — during a void year when he is no longer under contract.
The Packers’ best course of action might be negotiating a new deal with Jones, one that would lower his cap number for next season but also give him more future security.