Do you have examples at players not wanting to restructure? The way the cap works, an up front bonus can be amortized over the life of the contract, but the base pay counts in the year it is paid. Therefore the Cards (or any other organziation) can convert base pay into a bonus (accelerating the payment to the player) in exchange for only having a portion of the cap hit this year, but spreading it our over future years.NFL players often cringe at restructuring a contract, on the principle of what it implies or this would happen frequently even though more money may be made apparent upfront from my experience watching teams trying to restructure with players... usually for good reason, players and front offices do not trust one another despite acts which benefit both sides
You will often hear of "restructures" where it's really a pay cut. That's not a restructure, it's a pay cut. The only reason this doesn't happen more often is because teams would rather keep cash in their pocket today and pay tomorrow. Literally every player would accept a bonus today for pay he expected in future years. If Chandler took a pay cut to open up cap space then sure, he's a hero, but he didn't. He got a payment advance.
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