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In addition to moving around money in quarterback Jared Goff’s contract, as expected, the LA Rams also re-structured the contract of tackle Rob Havestein to save money against the 2020 salary cap, as reported by Ian Rapoport of the NFL Network. Rapoport notes that Havenstein still gets the same $7 million or so, but money was converted around as such to save the team some money.
Along with #Rams QB Jared Goff, Los Angeles also restructured the contract of RT Rob Havenstein to create more cap space. He’s still due about $7M, but it gave them room for FA signings and other business.
— Ian Rapoport (@RapSheet) April 27, 2020
A re-structure of the deal doesn’t mean that Havenstein gave any money back. As better explained by Bret Stuter at Ramblin’ Fan:
Let’s discuss how that works. Let’s make up some numbers for QB Jared Goff. In our example, Goff is due $10 million salary this year, has 5 years remaining on his 8-year contract’s $40 million signing bonus, plus has a $20 million roster bonus due this year. His current salary cap is $35 million. If the Rams cut him, they save his roster bonus and salary but must recognize all his remaining signing bonus. In this story, that means that the Rams save just $10 million.
But if the team restructures the contract, converting the $20 million roster bonus into a signing bonus, the team pushes $16 million of that salary into equal parts into the future. So restructure simply takes what is in the contract and reclassifies one bonus into another.
The cap space saved over the last week, including the eventual signing of Todd Gurley by the Atlanta Falcons, which will save a little more, is enough for the team to sign free agents A’Shawn Robinson and Leonard Floyd, plus the recently drafted rookie class and free agent signees.