The Packers elected to generate $2.488M in salary cap space by converting $3.1M of the cash Dean Lowry was set to earn in 2021 into a signing bonus.  The team also added three void years to his deal.  Lowry's contract now looks like this:

Lowry does not get paid any more or any less than he would have under the new structure, but he gets most of his cash immediately.  Lowry's numbers for 2022 are unchanged.  It is a one-year deal in some respects, but it does make him harder to release in 2022 should the team wish to move on, so that is a positive for the player.  Still, the Packers can still move on from Lowry in 2022 as his ratio of dead money to cap savings is roughly one to one and the cap savings would be nearly $4 million.

The timing is a little surprising.  It may be simply that the Packers like Lowry more than many fans do.  I am a little ambivalent about Lowry: essentially, I just think his production has been too little given his level of compensation.  I have previously suggested a pay cut and have at least entertained the notion of his outright release. 

The Packers appeared to have had enough cap space at present to sign their remaining unsigned draft picks, Eric Stokes and Amari Rodgers, without restructuring Lowry now unless the Packers have an expense that has not yet been public or have another move in mind.  I note that Ken Ingalls estimates $1.619 million to sign Stokes and Rodgers, but here is a table showing why I think the Packers should be able to sign the two rookies for a net expense of about $1.504 million:

The players in 2019 were fortunate that the new CBA increased the rookie minimum by $115,000 rather than the normal $60,000 increase under the old CBA.  That explains why I did not use the evident progression of $120,000 more for the 3rd round pick and the $97,000 extra for the first round pick's cap numbers.  The cap numbers for Stokes and Rodgers are just my estimates and the actual numbers will be different, but I should be in the ballpark.  Rashod Bateman, the 27th pick in this year's draft, signed for a cap number of $2.29 million, so that at least is an upper limit for Stokes, the 29th pick. 

As a note, $9.85 million of Collier's four-year, $10.836 million ($5.9M signing bonus) was fully guaranteed, or about 95%.  Isaiah Wilson's deal was 99% fully guaranteed.  It seems likely that Stokes' deal will be 100% guaranteed.  Given Isaiah Wilson troubles last year - he was traded and the acquiring team released him just three days later - issues like offsets and voiding guarantees for poor behavior will be the subject of negotiations.  Julian Blackmon got $926,436 guaranteed (his signing bonus) out of a deal worth a total of $4.540 million.  That is about 20.4%. 

THE NFL AND NFLPA AGREE TO SET A MAXIMUM OF $208.2M FOR THE 2022 SALARY CAP:

The NFL and the Union agreed that the salary cap in 2022 would not exceed $208.2 million.  I cannot remember there ever being such an agreement in the past.  Nor do I understand why the union or the NFL reached an agreement as to the  maximum amount as opposed to a floor.  This means that the cap might be lower than $208.2 million but it will not be more than that amount.  I had hoped for a 2022 cap limit in the $210 to $215 million range, but that is not to be, apparently.  That is bad news for teams like the Packers whose $237 million in cap liabilities for 2022 already exceed the projected maximum of $208.2 million (and that is without considering the team's unrestricted free agents for 2022).

Here is a link to an article by Jason Fitzgerald of Overthecap with his reasoning as to why this agreement was reached.  While he makes a better argument than I was able to make for announcing this maximum cap number, I do not really find it convincing.