Lance Briggs - Potential Free Agent

[Slingin Sammy 33]

Originally Posted by Giantone

Ok,and you're right but if that player can make that money anyway,why?

NFL contracts are not like NBA, MLB. They are not guaranteed. For example; Moss has about 20M coming in the next four years, but if he just sucks, slows down, or gets injured the Skins would look to cut him. He would not be paid the rest of the 20M. But, if the Skins pay him a portion of the 10M now and leave 10M in the out years, the 10M now is paid and counts against the cap if he is released in a later year. So restructuring not only pays a player now, it provided more security because he is more costly against the cap to cut.

I may be a little off on this but this is just a "Reader's Digest" of the basic concept of how the restructure works. Again, Schneed and Canuck are extremely sharp on this stuff. If you look through the site, Canucks cap sheets are available.