Owner Steve Bisciotti mentioned last month the possibility of restructuring defensive tackle Brandon Williams’s contract to create salary cap space, and the Ravens have followed through on that.
According to ESPN’s Field Yates, Baltimore has converted $7.5 million of Williams’ $8.5 million base salary for the 2018 season into a bonus, an accounting maneuver that creates $5.625 million in cap room. It’s the second time the Ravens have restructured the sixth-year defensive lineman’s five-year, $52.5 million contract signed only last March.
NFL Players Association records indicated the Ravens entered Thursday with $12.898 million in cap space, but that was before the free-agent signings of wide receivers Ryan Grant and John Brown became official. Grant agreed to a reported four-year, $29.5 million contract while Brown is receiving a reported one-year, $5 million deal, meaning their additions will eat up a sizable portion of that cap room.
The downside of the Williams restructure is the long-term consequence of increasing cap numbers for the remaining three years of the agreement after 2018. Williams, 29, will carry a $5.92 million cap number this season, but each of the next three seasons now carry cap figures north of $14 million.
With the reported restructure, here are Brandon Williams' revised cap numbers:
2018 $5.92M
2019 (age 30) $14.17M
2020 (age 31) $14.17M
2021 (age 32) $14.42M#Ravens— Luke Jones (@BaltimoreLuke) March 15, 2018
For those originally on the fence about the Ravens investing so much in a run-stopping defensive tackle who hasn’t offered much as a pass rusher in his career, these cap ramifications for a player who will soon be on the wrong side of 30 aren’t exactly ideal. But it’s the cost of doing business when you’re tight against the cap and want to make additions to your current roster.
