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Lane Johnson and the Philadelphia Eagles agreed to a contract restructure that frees up more than $5 million in cap space, according to a report from NFL insider Ian Rapoport.
RapSheet adds that Johnson’s deal was restructured in order to facilitate the Eagles’ revised terms with Jason Peters.
But the Eagles didn’t actually need to do anything to Johnson’s deal to make room for paying Peters. Over The Cap already had them with about $16.5 million in cap space to work with, which ranked 10th most in the league.
So, why the change, then?
#Eagles didnt need the cap room to increase Peters salary. Id guess its more likely they wanted to keep their carryover number constant
— Jason_OTC (@Jason_OTC) September 10, 2020
Note that Johnson did NOT take a pay cut. The term “restructure” is sometimes misunderstood in this regard. Johnson isn’t earning any less money; he’s just receiving it differently.
The Eagles merely took some of Johnson’s base salary and converted it into a signing bonus. The upside to doing this is that it frees up cap space in the short-term. The downside is that it increases cap numbers in future seasons.
With the Eagles currently projected to be about $64.7 million (!) OVER the threshold in 2021, Howie Roseman is going to be counting on rolling over a good chunk of cap space for next year.