The Lions players are off from practice on Tuesday, but the team still did a little business with its oldest player. Per Field Yates of ESPN, the Lions have tinkered with DT Michael Brockers’ contract to free up some cap space in 2022.
Yates reports the Lions converted $4 million of Brockers’ $7 million base salary in 2022 to a signing bonus. The move frees up an extra $2 million in cap space this season.
The Lions had just over $2.9 million in cap space available prior to the restructure with Brockers. Detroit recently made a similar maneuver with left tackle Taylor Decker to get on the right side of the NFL’s cap.
The restructure does come with a cost. Brockers now counts an extra $2 million against the team’s cap figure in 2023, taking his figure to $13.975 million according to Over The Cap. It means cutting Brockers, who has not done a lot on the field in his time in Detroit, after the season now costs $2 million more in 2023 dead cap.
Also, the Lions would now lose even more cap room by releasing or trading Brockers during this season.
A couple of contract restructures for cap space:
-Lions converted $4M of DT Michael Brockers' salary into a bonus for $2M
-Falcons converted $8.5M of LB Deion Jones’ salary into a bonus (with 3 void years added) for $6.8M. Jones get his salary payout sooner as part of the deal
— Field Yates (@FieldYates) September 13, 2022
As for what the Lions intend to do with the newfound cap room? Stay tuned…
