With the Jets pressed tight against the salary cap for 2012, the team has utilized one of the simplest tricks for creating a little breathing room.
Manish Mehta of the New York Daily News reports that the Jets have restructured left tackle D’Brickashaw Ferguson’s contract by converting $9 million of his base salary into a guaranteed payment. The move creates $7.5 million in cap space, by spreading the $9 million over the remaining six years of his contract.
And so Ferguson didn’t take a pay cut of any kind. Instead, he simply received the bulk of his 2012 compensation now. He’ll get the remaining $985,000 via 17 game checks.