Terrell Suggs is converting $3MM of his $4MM base salary for 2015 into a signing bonus, freeing up some 2015 cap room for the Ravens, a source confirms to Aaron Wilson of the Baltimore Sun (Twitter link). Mike Florio of Pro Football Talk first reported (via Twitter) that the two sides were working on restructuring Suggs’ deal.
With four years remaining on his deal, Suggs’ new $3MM signing bonus will count for just $750K on each season, creating $2.25MM in cap savings for 2015. It was a logical move for Baltimore since the veteran’s base salary for the coming season was already fully guaranteed, so the team would be paying that $4MM sooner or later. Suggs’ cap hit will be reduced from $6.2MM to just below $4MM in the move, while his cap numbers for 2016 through 2018 each increase by $750K.
After agreeing to a restructure with Suggs, the Ravens are also continuing to explore the possibility of working out a similar arrangement with Haloti Ngata, says Wilson (via Twitter). However, Ngata doesn’t seem to be in any danger of being cut, and Ian Rapoport of NFL.com tweets that the defensive lineman’s contract will likely go unchanged. Ngata likely isn’t enthused about the idea of taking a pay cut, and any other form of restructure would have to involve the team extending his deal beyond 2015.