The numbers for linebacker Tamba Hali’s restructured contract are in, and the Kansas City Chiefs stand to gain $7 million in salary cap room for 2015.
According to cap expert and former agent Joel Corry, who has seen the parameters of the deal, Hali’s 2015 salary will drop from $9 million to $6 million this year, the final season of a five-year, $60 million contract.
Corry said the $6 million salary is comprised of a $5 million signing bonus, a fully guaranteed $870,000 base salary and a $130,000 workout bonus.
The restructuring adds four years to Hali’s current contract that will automatically void five days after the 2016 Super Bowl. This will add $4 million in dead money to the Chiefs’ salary cap in 2016 because of the $5 million signing bonus he will receive this year. Barring an extension, Hali will be a free agent in 2016.
Hali, according to Corry, can earn back his $3 million pay cut through sack incentives that aren’t likely to be earned. Hali can make $1 million for reaching milestones of eight, 10 and 12 sacks in 2015.
“They got way more cap room than I thought they’d get from a Hali restructure because they put the dummy years in,” Corry said. “Carolina has been doing that a lot recently. Reggie McKenzie in Oakland had to use them when he first got to Oakland because they were in such bad cap shape.”
The Chiefs stood to save $9 million by releasing Hali, who had a cap number of $12 million this season.
Hali is coming off a Pro Bowl season in which he finished with 59 tackles and six sacks, but there was some thought that the Chiefs might be willing to release him to create playing time for Dee Ford.
Ford, the 23rd overall pick in the 2014 NFL Draft, spent the entire 2014 season behind Hali and Justin Houston on the depth chart.
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