Packers will have an extra salary cap hit after latest David Bakhtiari news

When the Green Bay Packers decided to release left tackle David Bakhtiari back in March, the team opened up $20.93 million in cap space and had $19.065 in dead money — a value that had already been paid over years prior, but hadn't hit the cap yet. After all, the Packers will have an extra hit.

It's not exactly an unexpected situation. but Bakhtiari filed for injury protection, according to independent cap analyst Ken Ingalls.

With that move, Bakhtiari will receive $2.05 million because he was released without passing a physical. The Packers will have an $1.23 million extra cap hit in 2024.

David Bakhtiari could file an injury grievance for his entire 2024 salary of $21.5 million. In this case, Green Bay would have $8.6 million (40%) hitting the cap immediately, and the result of the grievance would add or subtract to that value in the future. However, it doesn't seem like this is a likely scenario at this point.

David Bakhtiari received a positive injury update back in May. Nevertheless, the offensive lineman has not only not signed elsewhere, no team has even brought him in for a workout. Since suffering a severe knee injury in December, 2020, Bakhtiari has played only 13 total games. The last time he was on the field was in week 1 of last season, when the Packers faced the Chicago Bears. Then, he had to go through a new surgery and is still in the recovery process.

With the new cap hit after the injury protection, the Packers will have $20.295 million in dead money for David Bakhtiari in 2024. There's no dead money left beyond that, since the Packers didn't use a post-June 1st designation.

David Bakhtiari is still open to the possibility of playing in the NFL.

Related: Five potential landing spots for David Bakhtiari