As the 2021 offseason rolls on, more teams are restructuring contracts to create cap space.
Per ESPN’s Field Yates, the Giants have done that with cornerback James Bradberry and linebacker Blake Martinez. The moves together have created $7.5 million against the cap.
With Bradberry, New York converted $8 million of salary into a signing bonus to create $4 million in cap space. For Martinez, $7 million in salary was converted to create $3.5 million in cap room. But that makes Bradberry’s cap hit $20.5 million in 2022 with Martinez’s cap hit $14 million.
The salary cap should start to go back up next year, but those cap hits illustrate that converting salary to a bonus often just means a team is delaying the inevitable consequences of a contract when making those conversions.