How much the Panthers saved after restructuring Thompson and McCaffrey’s contracts
The Panthers created $11.67 million more in cap space after restructuring Christian McCaffrey and Shaq Thompson’s contracts last week, according to a league source.
The move to restructure their contracts came after the Panthers placed the franchise tag on right tackle Taylor Moton. Moton’s tag guarantees him $13.75 million, which cut the Panthers cap space to roughly $17.75 million.
But with McCaffrey and Thompson’s restructured contracts, the Panthers will now enter free agency with $29.8 million in cap space, though some of that money will be used on those selected in the upcoming draft.
The $11.67 million in savings was previously unreported.
Before their contracts were restructured, McCaffrey had a $12.4 million salary cap number, which was the fourth-largest on the team. Thompson’s number was $14.18 million, which was second-largest behind quarterback Teddy Bridgewater. Now those numbers are $6.89 million and $8.05 million, respectively, according to a league source.
The two players had most of their base salary converted to signing bonus, which was spread out over the remaining years of their contracts. Thompson is signed through the 2023 season and McCaffrey is signed through 2025.
While McCaffrey and Thompson’s new deals save the Panthers money now, it increases their salary cap numbers in future years. McCaffrey and Thompson are the second and third players to have their contracts restructured this offseason. Last month, center Matt Paradis’ contract was restructured to create about $4.7 million in cap space.
“It’s not something we want to do long term, restructure or kick money down the road,” Panthers general manager Scott Fitterer said last week. “But this is one of those unique years where we’re trying to create money. We were tied against the cap, and the cap went down as well.”
This story was originally published March 14, 2021 at 7:01 PM.
