The restructuring of the pending contract for Kansas City Chiefs’ QB Patrick Mahomes will be more than enough to help put the team below the NFL’s salary cap before the free agency starts.
The Chiefs are expected to restructure Mahomes’ contract, converting their escalation bonus into a signature bonus. The ESPN report seems to suggest that the front office will convert the entire Mahomes $ 21.7 million list bonus.
According to the OverTheCap staff, this change will create $ 17.3 million in cap space for the Chiefs in 2021. Prior to the restructuring, the Chiefs were projected to be about $ 4.5 million above the cap for 2021. After the restructuring, OverTheCap now projects that the Chiefs will have $ 12.1 million in cap space. That amount is good for the 20th in the league in terms of space available for the limit.
However, there is some compensation for restructuring Mahomes’ business. As a result of the restructuring, the maximum number of Mahomes is expected to increase by $ 4.3 million in each of the next four years, according to OverTheCap projections. Each time you restructure a contract, the coverage space in future years will shrink and this is not expected to be the Chiefs’ only restructuring.
Remember that $ 12.1 million in capitalization space runs out quickly when you consider how much it will cost to sign up for an eight-player draft class. The team will need to be creative as it continues to free up money so that it can be active at the free agency.