From Carson Wentz to Cole Beasley; Eight NFL Stars Who Could Be Sacrificed By Their Franchises For Cap Space

As we approach free agency (and the NFL draft), coaches and front office executives are hard at work on their team-building strategies for the 2022 season and beyond. With the salary cap estimated at $208.2 million per club for the coming campaign. This is restructuring/release season. Some franchises simply need to straighten out their books, while others will aim to free up cash to target specific players in free agency or on the trade block. 

Cole Beasley

Cole Beasley’s numbers were way down across the board in 2021 and he’ll be 33 before training camp opens. we’re not talking about performance, just the numbers. Beasley is due a $500,000 roster bonus when the league year opens, so you’d think they would want to make the decision before they pay that sum. If they do, they could rid themselves of more than $6 million in cash (salary and bonuses) and salary cap for the 2022 season. 

Bryan Bulaga

At 29, Bulaga is entering the second-to-last season of a five-year, $33.75 million extension that has been rather burdensome for the Packers given the player’s injury woes. When healthy, Bulaga is a solid right tackle who raises the level of performance for the offensive line as a whole. The problem is that he has appeared in just 33 of 48 regular-season games since signing the new deal March 20, 2015, and carries a cap hit of $7.9 million for 2018.

Kenyan Drake

One of the most notable free agents the Arizona Cardinals have is running back Kenyan Drake. It is unknown how much interest the team has in re-signing him, although head coach Kliff Kingsbury has said on multiple occasions that Drake is a “perfect fit” in the offense. While it is uncertain, there hasn’t been any progress in terms of contract talks. In fact, there hasn’t been much in terms of talks, period.

Marcus Peters

Peters was one of a handful of players Baltimore could restructure to create cap space. While restructuring a contract can free up cap space immediately, it does add money to future years, which is why teams are often hesitant to do it. However, with just two years remaining on his contract and the final year having little dead money, it makes a ton of sense for the Ravens to do here.

Joe Schobert

Schobert was due a $7 million fully guaranteed base salary in 2021 as well as $300k in roster bonuses in total for the season. As reported by PFT, the Jacksonville Jaguars are paying $3.65 million of Schobert base salary in 2021. This leaves the Steelers on the hook for the $3.35 million base salary and the $300k roster bonuses. In all, the Steelers are responsible for the other $3.65 million for Schobert in 2021 according to Pro Football Talk.

Courtland Sutton

Sutton's contract was structured to keep him with the Broncos through 2023. He'll have a cap charge of $13.2M in 2022, with $10.5M payable as a roster bonus.

Trae Waynes

If the Vikings were going to trade Waynes, or any of their other cornerbacks, they would have done so much earlier in the offseason so that they could find replacements for them well in advance. Not that the Vikings couldn’t trade Trae Waynes away before the start of the 2019 season, but with the way things are falling for this team, it would definitely come as a surprise.

Carson Wentz

Wentz, Traded: $852,928 cleared ($33.8 million dead money). It wasn’t much, but the Eagles actually cleared some space (well, not until the trade officially goes through after the new league year begins) by trading Wentz to the Indianapolis Colts. And also took on the largest dead money figure in NFL history by a significant margin in the process.

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