Veteran cornerback Jimmy Smith has become the latest Raven to restructure his contract, freeing up a little extra cap room for the team for the 2016 season.
According to Brian McFarland of RussellStreetReport.com (via Twitter), Smith converted $6MM of his base salary for 2016 to a signing bonus.
Smith had initially been set to earn a fully guaranteed $7MM base salary for 2016, with a cap hit of $9.6MM. By reducing his salary to $1MM and spreading that new $6MM bonus evenly over the remaining four years on his contract, the Ravens free up $4.5MM in cap room, reducing Smith’s cap number to $5.1MM.
Smith’s is the latest in line of contracat restructures for the Ravens, who also reworked Marshal Yanda‘s contract, extended Joe Flacco, and had Kyle Arrington take a pay cut. As Jeff Zrebiec of the Baltimore Sun observes (via Twitter), those moves ultimately created more than $15MM in cap savings.
While Smith’s new-look contract helps the Ravens out in the short term, the team may need to address the deal again as soon as next year. By adding $1.5MM to the cornerback’s cap hit in each year from 2017 to 2019, Baltimore increases his future cap charges to $12.6MM (2017), $13.1MM (2018), and $13.6MM (2019).
Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images.