The Green Bay Packers gave receiver Christian Watson a one-year, $11 million contract extension on September 9th of last year. On paper, the NFL’s rules state that a player cannot sign an extension for more money (average per year) within a year of their prior extension. So Watson can’t sign a new extension for more than $11 million per year until at least September 10th of 2026, right? Extremely wrong.
Why? Because of void years and fake money. You have to love the modern NFL and the minutiae of the collective bargaining agreement.
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The extension that Watson signed contains three void years, to help spread the money of the signing bonus portion of his last deal. In those three void years, he has a $30 million signing bonus due to him, even though he’s not under contract for those seasons. That money is in no way real in any other way than this: It sets the ceiling for the Watson extension.
The Packers don’t have to stay under $11 million per year to give Watson an extension within a year of his last deal; they just have to stay under $30 million per year (plus the cost of a minimum salary). If it’s $30 million per year, that still counts as “less” (the phantom $30 million bonus plus a phantom minimum salary) because “less” is based on the fake money, not the real money. [Note: If you haven’t noticed yet, we’ve completely bastardized the idea of yearly parity in this league with all of the manipulations being made to the CBA.]
For what it’s worth, Spotrac doesn’t have this $30 million bonus on its site, but Over The Cap does, and I’ve been assured by Packers-sphere cap guru Ken Ingalls that this bonus does exist (Spotrac’s numbers are wrong).
The $30 million mark is interesting because Indianapolis Colts wide receiver Alec Pierce, who signed for $28.5 million per in free agency this offseason, got around the same amount. Pierce is a pretty good proxy for Christian Watson, as they’re from the same draft class, have had similar career production and have a similar skillset (speed receivers). The same is true about Jameson Williams, who signed a $26.7 million extension three days before Watson’s 2025 extension.
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So, depending on Watson’s camp’s perspective, the floor for this next extension will probably be in the $26.7 million to $28.5 million ballpark, and from the Packers’ perspective, the ceiling will be set at a hard $30 million (plus minimum salary), as they can’t spend above that on a per-year average until after September 9th, 2026. If a deal doesn’t get done before the start of camp, we could see an Elgton Jenkins-like hold-in situation, considering how much money is on the line for Watson this year.
With so little wiggle room in this deal, it will probably be an easy contract to negotiate for both sides. The Packers should be extra motivated to lock in their players on contract extensions this offseason, too, as they were disciplined and collected their compensatory draft picks in the early stages of free agency.
Currently, the Packers have $28.9 million in available cap space for the 2026 season, per OTC. Whatever unused cap space they have in 2026 will rollover to the 2027 season, when they’re already projected to have $84.6 million in cap space next year. In short, Green Bay is scheduled to be a big spender next year. If they spend next year, though, they won’t be able to collect comp picks for players walking out the door in free agency, so they’ll get no benefit for losing these players, unlike the 2026 offseason. That will be a driving factor for getting contract extensions done for contract-year players before the next regular season (or even training camp) starts.
