The Facts: The Panthers have picked up some more cap space by reworking the deals of a couple of their top players. HC Matt Rhule said at a Wednesday press conference that McCaffrey and linebacker Shaq Thompson have both restructured their contracts with the team.
Diehards Line:
Rhule did not get into specifics about the changes, but the easiest way to handle such tweaks is to convert a portion of the base salary into a signing bonus spread out over several years. McCaffrey has a base salary of $8,037,500 for the 2021 season while Thompson's deal set him up to make $10.18 million. According to NFL Network's Mike Garafolo, McCaffrey opened up $5.6 million in salary cap with his restructure. Meanwhile, as Rotoworld.com notes, McCaffrey was seen doing private workouts recently and appears to be on track for a mostly healthy offseason. With Curtis Samuel and Mike Davis hitting free agency, there's a bankable path to 300-plus touches for McCaffrey in 2021.