After restructuring Donald Penn’s contract, the Raiders will get more than $3 million in additional cap space, according to an ESPN report.
In his restructured deal with the Raiders, Donald Penn's 2018 base salary drops from $6M to $3M, per source. His 2018 cap number is now $4.975M (down from $8.381M), while he gets $2.75M guaranteed added to his deal in 2019.
— Field Yates (@FieldYates) August 15, 2018
Under Penn’s previous terms, the Raiders were lingering around $3 million in salary cap room, but will now be operating in the ballpark of about $6 million – not enough to stuff a huge cap number for Khalil Mack into the 2018 budget, but definitely a move in the right direction. Remember, Mack’s current deal already accounts for $13.8 million against the Raiders 2018 cap.
As for Penn, he took a pay cut for this season of $3 million and moved almost all of that money into a guarantee for next year. Assuming he’s cut after the season, the agreement doesn’t appear to hurt Penn much in terms of money he’ll ultimately receive. But if, for whatever reason, Penn ends up on the roster again next year, he’ll have basically handed away $3 million this season.
The reality is, both sides understand that Penn isn’t going to return next year with a $10+ million cap number (which he’ll have in 2019), and the Raiders will eventually have to gobble up that guaranteed money with nothing to show in return. Unless, of course, Penn dominates again and the sides agree to kick the guaranteed money down the road for another year.
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