<
>

Packers' rookie salary pool set at $5.135 million

GREEN BAY, Wis. -- The Green Bay Packers' seven draft picks will count $5,315,527 against this year’s salary cap.

According to the latest NFL Players Association information, the Packers have $10,657,816 in available cap room for this season.

However, that doesn’t mean the Packers’ available cap space will be cut in half. Only the top-51 contracts count against the cap at this point. Five of the draft picks will count in the top 51, which essentially bumps more than $2.6 million in cap room outside the top 51. The other two draft picks fall below returning players who count $525,000 against this year’s cap.

That means the Packers will have between $8 million and $9 million in available cap space after the entire class is signed.

Last year, they had about $11 million left in cap space after they signed their 2015 draft picks.

They're going to need all the cap room they can come up with considering their 2017 free-agent class, which includes three of the five offensive-line starters (David Bakhtiari, T.J. Lang and Josh Sitton), plus running back Eddie Lacy.

The Packers have agreed to terms with one of their draft picks, fifth-rounder Trevor Davis.

Here's a breakdown of each draft pick's maximum allowable salary-cap figure for 2016, according to NFLPA records:

All rookie draft picks will sign four-year contracts. Clark’s will contain a fifth-year team option.

Clark, the 27th overall pick in the draft, should expect a slight increase over the deal signed by Cowboys cornerback Byron Jones, who was picked in the same spot last year. Jones’s four-year deal was worth up to $8,601,940 with nearly $7 million guaranteed (including a $4,515,956 signing bonus).