The Packers will have the cheapest offense in the NFL in 2023

According to Spotrac, the Green Bay Packers’ cash spending of $88.09 million on the offensive side of the ball this season is dead last among NFL teams. For reference, that’s over $10 million behind the Washington Commanders — who are in 31st place in offensive spending — and about $50 million behind the league average of $135.4 million going into the 2023 season.

This shouldn’t be much of a surprise, as the youth movement has hit the Packers’ offense full-force this offseason, but the numbers are still staggering. Out of that $88.09 million, $28.47 million (32.3 percent) is going to just two players: left tackle David Bakhtiari (who will make $17.5 million in cash in 2023) and running back Aaron Jones ($10.97 million). Even left guard Elgton Jenkins, who signed a $68 million, four-year extension with the Packers late in the 2022 regular season, is only taking home $2.2 million in 2023 after receiving $27.5 million from the team last year.

First-year starting quarterback Jordan Love is set to be the third-highest-paid offensive player on the squad this season with a $9.8 million figure. Fourth on the team is swing tackle Yosh Nijman, who signed a $4.3 million tender with Green Bay as an unrestricted free agent. Beyond those four players, no other offensive player on the team will take home more money than rookie second-round picks Luke Musgrave and Jayden Reed.

The Baltimore Ravens, who are spending $184.7 million offensively this year, are about to outspend the Packers by nearly $100 million in 2023 on just that side of the ball. The Cleveland Browns, set at $176.8 million, are also going to double the Packers’ offensive spending this year.

This isn’t the Packers’ fault for being “cheap,” as the team is going to continue to pay off their cap debt into at least the 2024 season. Since 2020, the only team that pushed more of its dollars forward on the salary cap than the Packers was the New Orleans Saints. That’s simply the cost of business for going “all in” at the end of Aaron Rodgers’ run with the team — on top of the decrease in the salary cap that occurred during the Covid era.

Overall, Green Bay will be 31st in cash spending around the NFL this season, beating just the Los Angeles Rams by $7 million. With the Packers’ overall cash spending projected to be $212.6 million, the team is expected to spend a little over $50 million less than the league average of $265 million. Even Green Bay’s defense, which critics of defensive coordinator Joe Barry will say has sucked up the team’s assets, only ranks 18th in the NFL in cash spending going into 2023.