The Titans have restructured Julio Jones‘ contract, according to ESPN.com’s Field Yates (on Twitter). The new deal will convert $14MM of his salary into a signing bonus, creating $11.2MM in cap room. To make it all work, Jones’ contract will also have two additional void years. 
In June, the Titans shipped a 2022 second-round pick and a 2023 fourth-round pick to the Falcons for Jones and a 2023 sixth-round pick. It was a far cry from the Falcons’ initial ask of a first-round pick, but that was the best they could do given Jones’ age (32) and contract. For the Titans, it was a monumental upgrade to bring one of the game’s most accomplished wide receivers to Nashville.
Unlike other suitors — like the Chiefs — the Titans were able to absorb his $15.3MM base salary for 2021. Still, they needed some extra space to make mid-season upgrades and Jones has obliged. For all intents and purposes, everything remains the same on Jones’ end.
Jones, one of the greatest receivers of his generation, holds Falcons franchise records in receptions (848) and receiving yards (12,896). On top of that, his 60 receiving TDs trail only Roddy White‘s 63. Now, he’ll look to add to his lofty totals with the Titans.
Get ready for more missed practices, and games missed. The pouting effect is about to take over.
Can somebody smarter than me explain why teams don’t do this with all their major guys more often, is there a penalty for doing this too much, because transferring salary to a signing bonus seems like a pretty genius loophole.
I’ll use an example to explain it. Lets say the Titans sign a player to a 3 year deal for $9 million. $3 million of that is a signing bonus and the third year is a voided year. What happens is the player only is under contract with the team for 2 years. What the voided year does is let you spread the signing bonus cap hit over 3 years instead of 2. That would mean each of the 3 years $1 million of the signing bonus is a cap it (aside from the base contract). That means that even when the player is no longer on the team, or agrees to an extension, there is still a $1 million dead money cap hit for the third year.
Teams have done the voidable years before, but the unique circumstances of the pandemic are making more teams use it a lot more. In 2020 the cap was just under $200 million. For 2021 the cap dropped for the first time in almost forever and dropped by a lot down to $182.5 million. Before the pandemic, teams were expecting a 2021 cap of like $210 million. So not only did they not get a cap increase of about $10 mil, it dropped almost $20 mil.
Because of all of that, teams are using these voidable years as kind of like a salary cap credit card. Since the cap is likely to jump up again it is better to take the dead money in the future when things return to normal. I assume if it wasn’t for this unique situation the league wouldn’t allow it. Hope this helps!
Great explanation. Voidable years should be banned though. Makes a mockery of the salary cap and creates all kinds of future issues. Imagine a team in two years with $50 million in missing salary cap spent on voidable years.
How is it that teams can convert salary into a signing bonus whenever they want in order to make cap room? How does that work?