Report: Brooks Reed’s re-structure creates $1.5 million in cap space

A few days ago it was reported that Brooks Reed would be re-structuring his contract to free up some cap space for the Atlanta Falcons. Yesterday we found out the details of that agreement, and wanted to share them here.

The Falcons have reportedly carved out an extra $1.5 million in cap space as Reed has agreed to have his salary for this season reduced (details in the tweet below). He’s still slated to eventually get that money, however, as Spotrac lists his new 2019 cap hit at $6.9 million (previously $5.4 million), so it looks like Thomas Dimitroff and company kicked the can down the road in regards to that $1.5 million.

Had the Falcons cut Reed outright, they would have accrued just $1.9 million in dead cap but would have also lost Reed as a contributor on Dan Quinn’s defensive line rotation. Outright cutting him is no longer an option as Atlanta would now have to pay $4.9 million in dead cap if they did such a thing.

Reed’s new cap hit of $6.9 million in 2019 will also come with a new dead cap hit of $2.4 million, which is $1.5 million more than the original dead cap hit of $940K he had before the re-structure. To just move the money to next season like this indicates that Dimitroff and Dan Quinn have a target in mind for this free agent class. We’ll see how that plays out in the coming days.