Just hours after the Raiders added pass rusher Tyree Wilson to the defense with their pick at seven overall, they made a move to clear cap space by restructuring the contract of the guy with whom Wilson could split time this season.
Chandler Jones has restructured his deal to free up over $5 million in cap space for the Raiders, according to ESPN’s Field Yates.
Prior to the start of Day 2 of the draft, per source:
The 49ers restructured the contract of RB Christian McCaffrey to create $8.576M in salary cap space.
The Raiders restructured the contract of OLB Chandler Jones, creating $5.068M in cap space.
— Field Yates (@FieldYates) April 28, 2023
This is money they could need to sign their draft class as well as any free agents they still wish to add this offseason.
As it stood, they were just shy of having enough money to sign their draft class with their available cap space coming into it. It was about a million dollars they needed to find, which is pretty easy in terms of restructures. Now they have that and more.
Wilson will be competing for playing time this season and it would be the 33-year-old Jones who sees less snaps if the rookie is ahead of schedule.