Saints are expected to restructure Armstead's salary to create cap room

I wish I understood all the salary cap jargon...guess I've never bothered to make time to study it....

I get the general idea, but how you know where to apply money for what year....pfffftttt

Nice day for Armstead lol

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I wish I understood all the salary cap jargon...guess I've never bothered to make time to study it....

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I'm no expert but here's my understanding. A player's salary counts against the cap in the year in which it is paid. However guaranteed money, like a signing bonus, can be spread out over the life of the contract. Armstead's salary this year is a little over $10MM but he has played half the season so he is only owed $5MM over the remaining 8 games.

Armstead's contract runs for 4 more years including this one. So that $5MM will only count $1.25MM against this year's cap. The move frees up $3.75MM in cap space this year. The downside to this is that if we cut him before his contract is up, the remaining money in that signing bonus accelerates to the current year as dead money. It counts against the cap even though the player is no longer with the team and the money was paid out years prior. It's unlikely that we'll cut Armstead so this is a pretty safe move, cap-wise.

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This is correct, but only up to 5 years.

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I didn't know that, thanks. You don't see many contracts that go longer than 5 years anyway.