The 49ers didn’t need to do anything with Jimmy Garoppolo to get under the salary cap by Wednesday’s 1:00 pm Pacific Time deadline. Instead, they restructured the contracts of defensive lineman Arik Armstead and tight end George Kittle to free up $18.756 million in cap space.
Those restructures bring the 49ers to $4.1 million under the cap per Over the Cap. They needed to get there before the new league year opens Wednesday.
Michael Ginnitti at Spotrac, San Francisco turned $10.4 million of Kittle’s salary into a signing bonus and added one void year to free up $8.3 million in room. Then with Armstead they turned $13 million of his salary into a signing bonus and tacked on a void year. That gave the 49ers an additional $10.4 million in cap space.
In short, they pushed some of Kittle and Armstead’s money down the road and made them cheaper this year and more expensive in the coming years.
This will allow them to keep Garoppolo on the roster to give them maximum time to figure out his trade market. They would free up $18 million in space with a $7.5 million dead cap hit if they release him outright. They’ll free up $25.5 million if they’re able to trade him. Instead of releasing him to get that $18 million, they did the Kittle and Armstead restructures, and the Garoppolo waiting game continues.
