Browns Restructure Contract of Wyatt Teller

The Browns continue to aggressively add salary cap space by restructuring contracts of players. They will add an additional $9M of cap space by restructuring the contract of Wyatt Teller.

The Cleveland Browns have been the most aggressive team in the league when it comes to restructuring contracts of players. This time it is offensive guard Wyatt Teller who is on the receiving end. It will reportedly free up an additional $9M for this year's cap.

Effective today at 4 PM ET, the NFL's Top 51 cap space rule went away for the season.

Many teams created cap space through contract restructures:

49ers George Kittle/Trent Williams: $23.224M
Ravens Marlon Humphrey: $7.536M
Seahawks Jamal Adams: $6.613M
Bucs: Shaq Barrett:…

— Field Yates (@FieldYates) September 6, 2023

There has been some speculation surrounding Teller's future with the Browns based on his remaining contract as he is signed through the 2025 season. He is currently in the second year of his deal that reportedly had an original out if the team chooses at the end of year two. The full details aren't known at this time but one could assume this solidifies his chances of being in Cleveland for its entirety. 

The Browns have been urgently accomplishing these over the last month. It started with Myles Garrett and Joel Bitonio. Soon after, the team restructured the contracts of David Njoku and Jed Wills. The team seems to have a very strategic goal in mind with all of these and must see them as a competitive advantage in the roster building process. 

Essentially the overall money in the original contract stays the same. The player and team agree to convert money from the base salary into bonuses. It’s good for the player because they get their money sooner and it’s good for the team because they get to add void years to the contract. 

This spreads the cap hit over time while also saving money against the cap because only a percentage of the bonus money is calculated against it. It is likened to spending on a credit card that will inevitably become due but in this instance it has zero percent interest rate because the cap continues to increase. 

The Browns continue to lead the league in available salary cap and this should put them roughly at just over $35M in cap space. The purpose is to certainly roll it over to offset the expected overage in cap space next year. This should go a long way to keeping the core of this team together and expand their window at competing for a Super Bowl.