Kansas City Chiefs QB Patrick Mahomes’ pending contract restructure will be more than enough to help get the team under the NFL’s salary cap ahead of the start of free agency.
The Chiefs are expected to restructure Mahomes’ contract, converting his roster bonus into a signing bonus. ESPN’s report seems to suggest that the front office will convert the entirety of Mahomes’ $21.7 million roster bonus.
According to the folks at OverTheCap, this move will create $17.3 million in cap space for the Chiefs in 2021. Prior to the restructure, the Chiefs were projected to be around $4.5 million over the cap for 2021. After the restructure, OverTheCap now projects that the Chiefs will have $12.1 million in cap space. That amount is good for 20th in the league in terms of available cap space.
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There is a bit of a trade-off to restructuring Mahomes’ deal, though. As a result of the restructure, Mahomes’ cap number is set to increase by $4.3 million in each of the next four years per OverTheCap’s projections. Each time you restructure a contract the cap space in future years will shrink and this isn’t expected to be the only restructure from the Chiefs.
Remember, that $12.1 million in cap space dries up quickly when you consider what it’ll cost to sign an eight-player draft class. The team will need to get creative as they continue to free money so they can be active in free agency.
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