Broncos restructure Tim Patrick’s contract to create cap space

The Broncos needed a bit of a break on their salary cap.

They modified a contract with an injured player in order to create it.

Denver converted $6 million of wide receiver Tim Patrick’s $8 million base salary into bonus money, a source confirmed to the Post, allowing them to split the $6 million prorated over the two contract years. Patrick’s remaining assets and create a $3 million cap for 2023.

Since bonus money is pro-rated over the length of the contract (up to five years), taking the money Patrick would have already earned and paying it out as a bonus saved the Broncos money. ceiling space this year.

According to data from the NFL Players Association and OverTheCap, Patrick’s base salary was $8 million and the conversion brought it down to $2 million. Prorated bonus amounts — the initial signing bonus Patrick received when he signed a three-year, $30 million extension in 2021 plus conversions from the past two years — now total just over $6 million. dollars for each of the next two seasons. This resulted in a cap charge of $8.072 million for 2023, compared to $11.072 million before the restructuring.

Patrick’s cap climbs to $16.072 million in 2024 — that’s up from $3 million with proration — but consider that if the Broncos end up rolling over the money they made this year, that essentially only covers the increased number of Patrick next year.