NFL Restructures: Lake, Rodgers, Smith

Before the start of the season, the Rams needed some work to get down below the salary cap. In order to reduce the team’s cap hit for the year, Los Angeles restructured the contract of starting safety Quentin Lake, according to Jason Fitzgerald of OvertheCap.com.

It was a simple restructure of Lake’s three-year, $38.25MM extension. The Rams converted $4.29MM of Lake’s 2026 base salary into a signing bonus. They also added two void years to his contract. Lake will hold a cap hit of $857K in each of those two void years, but the overall restructure will reduce his cap hit this year by $3.4MM.

Here are details on a few recently restructured deals from around the NFL:

• The Vikings also got a restructured deal done before the start of the 2026 season. Per ESPN’s Jeremy Fowler, cornerback Isaiah Rodgers agreed to a revised deal that created $1.2MM of cap space for the year. Rodgers and Minnesota came to an agreement to convert $1.5MM of playtime incentives, which were considered likely to be earned, into a signing bonus. The restructure added two void years to Rodgers’ contract, but as long as the Vikings allow the deal to play out, only the first year will hold a cap hit of $1MM.
• Lastly, the Eagles agreed to a restructured deal with outside linebacker Nolan Smith, according to Michael Ginnitti of Spotrac. The revised agreement addressed the next two years, freeing up $992K of cap space in 2026 and $10MM of 2027 cap space. For this year, Philadelphia converted $1.24MM of his salary into a signing bonus. After exercising the fifth-year option of Smith’s rookie contract, the Eagles converted $12.5MM of his fifth-year salary into an option bonus. The team added four void years to Smith’s deal with the first three years showing a cap hit of $2.75MM for Smith and the final year showing a cap hit of $2.5MM.