The Steelers and wide receiver Antonio Brown have restructured Brown’s contract in order to free up about $4MM worth of cap space for Pittsburgh, according to ESPN’s Adam Schefter (via Twitter). Ed Bouchette of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette reports (via Twitter) that the move will convert $5.2MM of Brown’s $6MM base salary into a signing bonus, which will be spread over the contract’s remaining years.
Brown, who also reworked his deal last year, was in line to have a $8.47MM cap number for 2014. If his salary has indeed been converted to $800K, that means $1.3MM in bonus money would be added to each of the remaining four years on his deal, reducing his ’14 cap number to $4.57MM.
For the Steelers, it’s the latest in a string of cap-clearing moves for the team, as the 2014 league year nears. In addition to reworking Brown’s deal, the club also restructured Troy Polamalu‘s and Heath Miller‘s contracts, and released veterans Levi Brown and Larry Foote.