The Arizona Cardinals have been tight up against the salary cap most of the offseason and more so now as they must be able to fit all 53 players they keep on the roster after this weekend and all their practice squad players. To give some breathing room, the Cardinals have reportedly worked a restructure of tackle D.J. Humphries’ new contract.
According to ESPN’s Field Yates, $10.59 million of his 2020 salary was converted into a bonus, freeing up more than $7 million in cap space for this season.
The Cardinals converted $10.59M of LT D.J. Humphries’ base salary into a signing bonus, creating $7.06M in cap space for 2020, per source.
Money now available for in-season roster management and flexibility as teams ready for the busiest transaction week of the NFL calendar.
— Field Yates (@FieldYates) September 2, 2020
He was originally scheduled to make $11.5 million in 2020 for his salary. That was reduced to the minimum for his experience in the league of $910,000. He gets the $10.59 million up front and that cap hit is spread out over the three years of his deal.
His cap hit for 2020 was going to be $12.8 million if he was active for every game this season. Now it will be only a little more than $5.7 million.
It is possible this move is to set the stage for a contract extension, like for receiver DeAndre Hopkins, but it is more likely that it was needed to simply maneuver the next week with cuts.
By saving the cap space this year, it does increase Humphries’ cap hit in 2021 and 2022.
In 2021, his cap hit would have been $16.4 million. Now it will be more than $19.9 million. In 2022, his cap hit would have been $15.05 million. Now it will be nearly $18.6 million.
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