Tag: contract restructures

Packers expecting to restructure ‘many more’ veteran contracts this offseason

The Packers restructured Kenny Clark’s contract, but there will be “many more” restructures coming this offseason, said GM Brian Gutekunst.

As was the case last offseason, the Green Bay Packers are planning on restructuring a number of veteran contracts over the next few months.

General manager Brian Gutekunst and executive vice president Russ Ball got started Wednesday by restructuring the contract of defensive lineman Kenny Clark, but the two-time Pro Bowler won’t be the last.

“We did, we touched Kenny’s contract, and there will be many more that we touch along the way,” Gutekunst said Wednesday. “A lot of it will be as we go, and what we need when we need it, so to speak.”

Last year, the Packers restructured every possible veteran contract to get under the salary cap and create operating room during the season. A similar plan appears to be starting to open this offseason.

The Packers entered the offseason needing to shed over $50 million of cap commitments before the start of the new league year on March 16. The number will rise by over $20 million if the team uses the franchise tag on receiver Davante Adams.

Restructuring deals is one way to avoid gutting the roster while helping the cap situation.

Contracts capable of being restructured to save money on the salary cap in 2022 include David Bakhtiari, Aaron Jones, Preston Smith, Adrian Amos, Billy Turner, Dean Lowry, Mason Crosby and Marcedes Lewis. The team could also do extensions for players such as Smith, Jaire Alexander, Za’Darius Smith and Randall Cobb to create cap space.

The Packers must also find a way to lower the cap number of quarterback Aaron Rodgers, who is still making a decision on his football future. An extension could lower his number by $15 million or more.

The team is juggling a lot of financial puzzle pieces, but restructures should help make the individual pieces less jagged and easier to put together this year.

Most of the restructures will include converting base salary and roster bonuses to a signing bonus and adding void years to spread out the cap hit over several years. It’s a useful way of pushing money into the future to help the cap now.

The contract of Clark, an elite player who is still only 26 years old, was a logical place to start. His restructure saved the Packers almost $11 million on the cap.

“Kenny being an anchor and pillar of our defense, that was an easy one to start out,” Gutekunst said.

If the Packers truly want to stay all-in around Rodgers in 2022, an avalanche of restructures is coming.

[listicle id=78245]

Report: Cowboys restructure contracts of Zack Martin, Tyron Smith, La’el Collins

Dallas found out their salary cap ceiling earlier Wednesday then in the afternoon went about creating room so they can play in free agency.

Although the Dallas Cowboys didn’t necessarily need to make any moves to become compliant with the 2021 salary cap after it was announced to be $182.5 million earlier on Wednesday, they made moves anyway. To help create room under the cap for the opening of free agency next week (March 17), the club pulled three restructure triggers to create a reported $17 million worth of space, according to ESPN’s Todd Archer.

The Cowboys could have netted around $21 million in space if they restructured each players deal down to veteran minimum base salaries, so each player’s deal has not been maximized. That’s normally the case for Dallas as even last year they didn’t knock any of the deals down to the minimums for each player’s service time.

Prior to the move, Martin was set to make $11,000,000 in base salary, Smith  $10,500,000 and Collins $8,550,000.   Their cap hits were $17 million, $14.025 million and $12.05 million, respectively.

The base salary amounts changed to bonuses will still be paid to those players during this season, but the cap hits will be spread out evenly over the remaining years on each player’s contracts. Potentially, like the team did with DeMarcus Lawrence’s restructure last year and what was included in Prescott’s new deal, the team could add void years to help spread the hits out over a maximum of five seasons.

Void years don’t add to the contract’s length, they are simply an accounting method (read: cap magic) that allows teams to manipulate a cap that is going to expand and possibly explode as soon as the new television deals hit the NFL’s revenue along with gambling proceeds.

Currently Smith’s contract runs through 2023 while Collins and Martin’s contracts run through 2024. Smith, like Lawrence, got a void year in last year’s restructure and that hit puts dead money on the 2024 cap after his contract ends.

If any of the players sign extensions with Dallas, the cap hit still resides on those years after the void years are replaced by actual contracts.

The Cowboys still have several restructure or cuts they can make to create more cap space as needed, but $17 million is a strong starting point to enter free agency with.

For a look at these moves as well as others that were proposed, here’s Cowboys Wire’s guide to maximizing cap space in 2021.

After Dak deal, here’s how Cowboys can maximum cap space in 2021

[listicle id=665843][lawrence-newsletter]