Browns Restructure Contract for Bitonio

The Browns restructured the contract of Joel Bitonio, in a move that saves the team an almost $8M against this year's salary cap.

The Cleveland Browns have restructured the contract of left guard Joel Bitonio. The move will now make the Browns the team with the second most cap space in all of football. Only the Arizona Cardinals have more to spend. For Bitonio, he will still receive the same amount of pay that was promised in his original contract.

 The restructure simply moves money from what is considered his base salary and converts it into bonuses. It creates room up front just like a credit card but over time that bill will become due. The Browns and other teams feel this strategy gives them an advantage due to calculating that the overall salary cap will continue to increase in coming years.

The Browns are only likely to restructure deals in this manner for players that they know will be here for a certain length of time. They restructured Deshaun Watson's contract earlier this offseason in what will likely become an annual event. Myles Garrett would probably be the next contract likely to be restructured at some point.

The move provides almost an additional $8M in salary cap for this year and brings the total available amount the Browns have to spend to over $22M. I wouldn't hold my breath though expecting the team to make a splash move for a player. NFL rules allow teams to rollover a percentage of their unused cap for next season.

Bitonio's deal still has him playing through the 2025 season, at which point he will be 35-years old. If he would like to continue playing, I would expect the Browns to welcome him finishing his career with the team by signing him to additional years.