That could happen through a 5th-year option or the Packers working out longer-term contract extensions.
Green Bay Packers fans: prepare yourselves. The team is making preparations to retain two embattled former first-round raft picks beyond the upcoming season.
In 2022, general manager Brian Gutekunst pulled the trigger on a pair of Georgia Bulldog defenders with the team’s two first-round picks, selecting linebacker Quay Walker with the 22nd overall pick and defensive tackle Devonte Wyatt at 28. Both players have had their ups and downs, but neither one has become a consistent, high-level NFL starter to this point in his career.
However, the Packers are evidently moving forward with the intent of keeping both players for at least another season after their 4-year rookie contracts expire next spring. In a press conference on Monday, Gutekunst said that he and the Packers want to keep both players long-term.
“I think we’re pretty close,” Gutekunst said when asked about where the team was on the decisions on Walker and Wyatt. “We won’t deal with that until after the draft. But for both of those guys, whatever mechanism we use, we’d like to keep these guys around for (2026) and beyond. So whether that’s doing the 5th-year option on these guys or extending them, one way or the other we’re planning to do that — we’d like to do that.”
As Gutekunst noted, both players are eligible for 5th-year team options that would cover the 2026 season, due to their status as former first-round picks. The Packers must make those decisions no later than May 1st — one week after the 2025 NFL Draft. or Walker, the projected option salary is $14.75 million, according to Overthecap.com, while Wyatt’s number is a bit less at around $13.9 million.
Gutekunst’s comments above indicate that longer-term extensions are very much in play as well, however. That could be an avenue that both sides in each negotiation might like, as the Packers could reduce the players’ cap hits for 2026 compared to their option numbers and perhaps bring them in on a lower average annual salary, while Walker and Wyatt could get the security of a longer-term deal as well as more guaranteed money in total than the option would provide.
APC’s Justis Mosqueda mentioned linebacker Nick Bolton of the Chiefs and defensive tackle Tershawn Warton of the Panthers as players whose recent free agent deals could be comparable for these two Packers. Each player signed a deal this offseason worth roughly $45 million over three years with a signing bonus in the region of $13 million, and both had their substantial base salary in the second year of the deal guaranteed.
Knowing the Packers, they would be loath to guarantee any salary after the first year of a contract, instead preferring to use roster bonuses that kick in each March. Still, those rough numbers could make sense if moderate extensions are indeed in the cards for Walker and Wyatt.
Either way the Packers choose to go, they are already a bit cap-strapped for the 2026 season. Overthecap estimates the Packers as having only about $6.5 million in effective cap space, a number that would quickly vanish if either of these players gets an option or an extension. Several players on the roster have contracts that can be restructured or released outright to save the team cap space, but the team may need to get a bit creative next spring in order to stay compliant with the cap.
Let these comments serve as a reminder that the front office’s work is far from over when the NFL Draft concludes next Saturday.