The Chargers created some additional cap space on Tuesday by restructuring Philip Rivers‘ contract.
A day after nearly leading the Bolts to a dramatic comeback win in Denver, Rivers agreed to convert $3MM of his base salary into a signing bonus, Field Yates of ESPN.com reports (on Twitter).
This will create $2MM in cap space for the Chargers, who hold just less than $10MM in space, according to OverTheCap.
Los Angeles’ decision will add $1MM to each of Rivers’ ensuing two cap figures, which reside at $22MM and $23MM, respectively. Rivers’ four-year, $83.25MM contract runs through the 2019 season. The 14th-year quarterback is attached to an $18MM cap figure this season; that figure remains the highest on the Bolts by a healthy margin.
Why not convert all of his base salary into a signing bonus?