The New England Patriots have reportedly agreed to a contract restructuring with tight end Jonnu Smith.
According to ESPN’s Field Yates, the team converted his $7.965 million base salary into a bonus on Friday. The Patriots were just a little over $4 million in cap space, per Over The Cap, and the Smith deal is slated to free up $5.31 million.
So the Patriots have more than doubled their reported cap space with this move.
Granted, it does kick larger cap hits down the road with Smith’s contract. If anything, it shows the growing faith coach Bill Belichick has in the 27-year-old tight end, who has been more involved in the offense throughout training camp.
There are still a lot of question marks at receiver for the Patriots right now. Even with the newly-installed offensive schemes, they’re still going to lean heavily on running the football and creating mismatches with their tight ends, Smith and Hunter Henry.
The concepts have changed, but the philosophy behind them remains the same.
