GREEN BAY, Wis. (NBC 26) — As players across the NFL are sitting out of voluntary offseason workouts because of concerns over health and safety amid the pandemic, the Packers are shifting to a virtual setting until at least mid-May.
That's according to reports from both the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel and ESPN.
Backed by the NFL Players Association, players from at least 20 teams have publicly announced they will not attend the voluntary workouts, which were scheduled to begin on Monday.
The Packers have a unique situation, however. Packers players are due a combined $5.1 million dollars in workout bonuses - bonuses due to players if they attend these voluntary workouts. That's the most in the league, according to OverTheCap.com.
Za'Darius Smith, David Bakhtiari, Kenny Clark, Aaron Rodgers and Davante Adams are each due at least $500,000 in workout bonuses this year. Smith's bonus of $750,000 is the largest in the league, and more than 18 other teams combined.
That kind of money is difficult to pass up. So rather than put their players in the difficult position of going against the union, the Packers have decided to make workouts virtual for a second straight year.
Players will get credit toward their bonuses by attending virtual Zoom meetings and tracking their workouts at home, according to the reports.
"I think they recognize, the front office does, that it puts the players in an awkward spot," Andrew Brandt, former Packers Vice President of Player Finance, said. "So they've made this allowance. And that's a nice way to do it."
Brandt is actually the executive who started the Packers workout bonus trend about a decade and a half ago. He joked that he is "to blame" for the situation Green Bay players are in this week.
"In 2004, 2005 and 2006 I'm looking around and no one is showing up (for voluntary workouts) because they want to be in Florida, Texas, California, wherever they are," Brandt said. "I had a new coach in Mike McCarthy and I said, 'we have to change this.'"
So, he and the rest of the Packers brass began adding bonuses to players' contracts as in incentive for them to attend the voluntary workouts.
"If a guy was making $1 million, now he's making $900,000 and $100,000 goes to a workout bonus," Brandt said. "If he's making $5 million, $500 thousand goes to the workout bonus."
"We are making a financial incentive for you to be here because you haven't been here before and you have to do it and we will pay for it," Brandt said of the logic behind the moves.
