When the Carolina Panthers exercised 2014 and ’15 options on linebacker Thomas Davis’ contract last week, they restructured his deal in the process so it is more salary-cap friendly, the Charlotte Observer reported.
The restructured deal created cap space by adding three voidable years onto the back end of the deal. The extra years spread out Davis’ cap hit. The contract options gave Davis a $5 million bonus and reduced his salary for this year to the veteran’s minimum of $950,000, cutting $3.25 million off his cap figure.
Thomas successfully came back from three torn ACLs that limited him to nine games from 2009-11. In 2013, he played all 16 games and had 123 tackles, four sacks, two interceptions, a forced fumble and eight pass breakups.
Carolina would like to re-sign defensive end Greg Hardy and possibly restructure the contacts of defensive end Charles Johnson and center Ryan Kalil, according to the Observer.