Source: Jason Witten reworks deal

[jobberone]

IRVING, Texas -- Add Jason Witten to the list of contract restructures for the Dallas Cowboys.

According to a source, the Cowboys converted $4.56 million of Witten's $5.5 million 2013 base salary into a signing bonus to save roughly $3.65 million against the cap. The Cowboys made a similar move with defensive end DeMarcus Ware on Wednesday, freeing up $4 million in space.

The Cowboys also reworked the deal for left guard Nate Livings, saving roughly $740,000 against the cap, according to a source. Livings was set to make a base salary of $1.7 million this season and will now make $715,000 with the difference between the two turned into signing bonus. In addition, the Cowboys have approached the agents for Jay Ratliff and Orlando Scandrick about restructuring their deals in order to help the Cowboys get under the salary cap by March 12.

The Cowboys are projected roughly $20 million over the cap and needed to rework a number of deals. They could gain even more room by signing Tony Romo, who is set to count $16.8 million against the cap, to an extension.

http://espn.go.com/dallas/nfl/story/...ng-deal-source

[koolaid]

if you can just convert base salaries into signing bonuses which don't count against the cap, does the salary cap even matter?

[jrumann59]

Originally Posted by koolaid

if you can just convert base salaries into signing bonuses which don't count against the cap, does the salary cap even matter?

Bonus can be spread, base salary counts against the cap in that league year. So if you have guy making 3.7m that year in salary, that year he costs 3.7m agains the cap, but if you take 3mil and make it bonus and spread over lets say the final 3 years his cap number this year 1.7m plus any old prorated bonus money he already has.