Report: Cardinals rework D.J. Humphries’ deal, add $7M in cap space

The Arizona Cardinals extended left tackle D.J. Humphries before he got to free agency this offseason, but they’ve already restructured the contract to give him more money up front, reports ESPN’s Field Yates.

Essentially, the Cardinals will pay Humphries $10.59 million like a signing bonus, reducing his base salary to less than $1 million and saving $7.06 million off his previously agreed-upon cap hit, per Yates.

That’s $7.06 million worth of flexibility for the year.

It’s a significant amount, giving Arizona the ability to make midseason additions or to extend other players currently under contract. For example, general manager Steve Keim has made it clear the team has been in negotiations with newly acquired receiver DeAndre Hopkins to rework his deal that has three years remaining.

Humphries and the Cardinals agreed to a three-year, $45 million extension this February.

Reworking Humphries contract isn’t anything new.

Arizona freed up $4 million by doing a similar restructure with linebacker Chandler Jones in mid-September last year.

At the time, it was perceived by some as a potential move to act big by targeting cornerback Jalen Ramsey, but Keim said the team had less than $1 million in cap space left at that point in time. Releases of defensive tackles Darius Philon and Robert Nkemdiche, plus a leg injury to Robert Alford and a suspension to Patrick Peterson were among the reasons for more needed cap space then.

Now what Arizona does remains unclear. But it’s a very significant amount of money suddenly available, and a nice payday for the franchise left tackle.

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