13 Times Champs
Cheesehead
There are only 3 positions that need to be filled. As was pointed out already, those positions can be filled regardless of injury. Last year was a good example. As was also already pointed out, the Packers won all 5 games Jenkins missed last year. Ryan Picket missed 5 games in 3 years. We can't assume anything about Neal, yet. He was a rookie and he wasn't a starter. He played two games. Better training habits could help him. Jenkins however missed at least 17 games the past three seasons. That seems a big difference.
Now as for money, I don't care what Philadelphia paid him. This is what he expected to get from Green Bay; "If the Packers had tagged him, Jenkins would have cost about $12 million for 2011. But they didn’t, and since Jenkins believes the Packers have no interest in a long-term deal, he’ll look elsewhere for a new team and a new contract."
Ah, but Green and Jenkins are 32 and at that age the injuries become more frequent. Green because of his weight can't take all that many snaps. Neals shoulder injuries scare me. The fact we won without Jenkins needs to be looked at in terms of a lot of things including opponents and health of other team members at the time.
The Packers didn't tag him but they could have resigned him when it appeared things were drying up in the market. The fact Ted didn't sign him has nothing to do with salary cap or his age as you have mentioned. As pointed out Pickett and Green are both older. Ted decided to go in another direction for better or worse.
Someone commented his sacks came when he was playing DT in the Nickel. I think at least some came from when he was a DE in the 3-4.