What a Packers, Elgton Jenkins compromise could look like

Turning Jenkins’ 2026 salary into a roster bonus is probably the best bet for everyone to come out happy.

As of now, the Green Bay Packers and offensive lineman Elgton Jenkins are still locked into a hold-in situation. While Jenkins did report to mandatory minicamp last month, he was a non-participant in practice and was dressed down. If he held out and simply didn’t report to Green Bay, Jenkins would have been fined north of $100,000, but this non-participant hold-in strategy allows him to avoid fines while also not hitting the practice field.

In training camp, which begins this week, the fines for a holdout increase to $50,000 per day. These are non-waivable fines, per the NFL’s newest collective bargaining agreement signed in 2020. The hold-in strategy would allow Jenkins to avoid these fines, too, though. Currently, Jenkins is on the non-football injury list, indicating that he sustained an injury outside of the facility this offseason.

I’m qualifying this with a massive “reckless speculation” label here, but it’s worth questioning the legitimacy of this injury based on recent events. If you’ve been following the news, it was revealed last week that JC Tretter, who at the time was the NFLPA’s Chief Strategy Officer, openly told players, by way of a podcast, to use fake injuries to create leverage in contract situations that they were unhappy with. The NFL won a grievance against the NFLPA for Tretter’s words, and the former Packers offensive lineman has since resigned from his position in the union.

So that’s another factor in the hold-in calculus.

Ultimately, one of two things is going to happen:

1. The Packers will hold firm on Jenkins being under contract for two more years, and Jenkins will eventually come back and play for the team under his current deal.
2. There will be some sort of contractual compromise.

I want to take a look at Option #2 here today.

The crux of Jenkins’ frustration is likely not his position swap to center, as guards are roughly making as much as centers, except for guard Trey Smith’s new record-breaking deal, which he signed after being hit with the franchise tag. Smith is only 26 years old, compared to Jenkins’ 29 years old, and Jenkins is currently not slated to be eligible for the tag until the 2027 season — when Jenkins will be 31. There’s a disparity in terms of the leverage Smith had compared to what Jenkins has.

Truthfully, I believe that Jenkins’ biggest concern is that the Packers don’t have any future commitments to the offensive lineman beyond this year. As it stands right now, Jenkins will carry a cap hit of $24.8 million in 2026 with a dead cap of just $4.8 million. That means that Green Bay could save $20 million in cap space by releasing him at some point next offseason. That’s not a great position to be in if you’re a player.

But that’s the exact position of flexibility that the team wants to be...