The Pittsburgh Steelers need to create some additional salary cap space ahead of the start of the new 2018 league year and it appears as though wide receiver Antonio Brown restructured his contract on Wednesday to help in that area as you can see from the Instagram screenshot below.
Brown restructuring his contract isn’t a huge surprise as I predicted it might ultimately happen several months ago. If the Steelers did do a maximum allowed restructure of Brown’s contract that he signed just over a year ago that’s currently being reported, they cleared $9.72 million in 2018 salary cap space.
As part of Brown’s Wednesday restructure, the $6 million roster he is due just after the start of the league year was likely turned into a signing bonus along with a large portion of the $7.875 million base salary he was scheduled to earn in 2018. While the Steelers did clear $9.72 million in cap space via Brown’s restructured contract, the wide receiver’s cap charges in the remaining years (2019-2021) increased by $3.24 million.
The Steelers already restructured the contracts of defensive end Stephon Tuitt and guard David DeCastro earlier in the offseason and those two moves created $13.26 million in 2018 salary cap space.
We might just hear in the coming hours or days that Steelers tackle Alejandro Villanueva has also restructured his contract as he’s a candidate to do so after signing a new contract last year.
Below is a look at Brown’s contract following the Wednesday restructure if it was done as reported.
| YEAR | BASE SALARY | PRORATED BONUS | ROSTER BONUS | CAP CHARGE |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2018 | $915,000 | $7,040,000 | $0 | $7,955,000 |
| 2019 | $12,625,000 | $7,040,000 | $2,500,000 | $22,165,000 |
| 2020 | $11,300,000 | $7,040,000 | $0 | $18,340,000 |
| 2021 | $12,500,000 | $7,040,000 | $0 | $19,540,000 |
