Arizona Cardinals: Restructure likely for contract extensions

The Arizona Cardinals are doing some contract restructuring to save cap space

It was announced on Wednesday morning that the Arizona Cardinals restructured the contract of offensive tackle D.J. Humphries.  They moved money from his contract as base salary and converted it to a signing bonus.

The move frees up approximately $7 million in cap space for 2020.  So immediately the first thought that came to mind for many was what free agent were they going to seek out?  Saw the same Jadeveon Clowney come up several times on Twitter.

It won’t be him or any other free agent.  The money can now be used to provide contract extensions.  Safety Budda Baker got his last week.

The Cardinals now can look to possibly extending receiver DeAndre Hopkins to a long term contract.  It’s already easy to say it is well deserved and he hasn’t played a down for this team yet.

Though the Cardinals haven’t come right out and said it, this has to be what the savings amounts to.  At this point unless someone gets hurt, the Cardinals could be set in most places.

No Clowney, no Earl Thomas, no Leonard Fournette.  It’s that simple.  Freeing up cap space to extend those the team wants around a long time is the right move to make here.

As we’ve discussed in past, it would only be natural to maybe save some of that just in case someone that gets cut this upcoming weekend in final cuts catches the Cardinals eye.  Don’t count on it though.

There are reasons why the current crop of name free agents are just that, free agents.  A couple of those guys previously listed are problems on and off the field.  All three of those players will be more expensive than what the Cardinals have saved in today’s news.

We’ll see if the Cardinals however restructure anyone else.  For now we wait to see what the next move for the team is.