Acme Packing Company
Per the NFL’s collective bargaining agreement, all vested veteran players who make teams in Week 1 will have their non-guaranteed salary for the upcoming season converted into guaranteed salary. Vested veterans are defined as players with more than four years of experience in the league.
This puts forces teams into interesting decisions, essentially having to make all-or-nothing bets on these veteran players from a cash and cap standpoint to start the regular season. Starting next Tuesday, NFL teams will not only have their top 51 players’ cap hits count against their cap, but their entire 53-man roster, the practice squad and all of the players who they hold on their injury lists (injured reserve, physically unable to perform and non-football injury).
In short, teams’ cap counting is about to undergo rapid changes, at the same time that they must make these all-or-nothing decisions regarding vested veterans.
So who are the Green Bay Packers’ vested veterans?
In total, the team has 16 players with more than four years of NFL experience on their 91-man offseason roster. 12 of them are non-relevant from a guaranteed salary perspective, because the team is simply planning on keeping them:
All of these players are starters. All but Orzech have multiple years left on their multi-year contracts.
Where the 2025 Packers will feel the impact of these all-or-nothing decisions is with their remaining four players:
Hardman was brought to Green Bay to help boost their punt return game, arguably the position that could have seen the biggest personnel boost under special teams coordinator Rich Bisaccia’s tenure. So far, though, Hardman has only returned three punts for a total of 10 yards in the preseason. One of his returns was muffed and lost to the defense, while another was caught backed up near the goal line and stopped for a gain of no yards. On offense, Hardman is being used as a reserve slot receiver, behind Jayden Reed (who would return punts again if Hardman doesn’t make the roster), Matthew Golden and Malik Heath in the pecking order.
There were high hopes for Simmons entering camp, but his performance hasn’t been positive in the preseason, either. Just a few weeks ago, Simmons was pushing McDuffie for the team’s third-linebacker role in 4-3 base looks, which the defense plays about a third of the time. Now, there are clamors that both Ty’Ron Hopper and Welch should be ahead of Simmons on the defensive depth chart going into the preseason finale. Simmons plays a unique role on special teams, in that he’s a linebacker who plays positions that usually go to defensive backs, but the...
