The Jacksonville Jaguars are in a bit of a tight salary cap situation at the moment. The good news is that they can create more space. The bad news is that there's always give and take in doing so.
According to Over the Cap, the Jaguars are $11.65 million over the projected 2026 salary cap. Only four teams have less cap space than Jacksonville.
So how can GM James Gladstone generate more spending power? One way is through contract restructures.
In short, restructures are like using a credit card -- you have money to spend in the present, but the bill comes due down the road.
Oftentimes, when restructuring a deal, teams will take a portion of a player's base salary for that year and convert it to a signing bonus. So rather than incurring the full salary cap effects of the base salary in the present, that amount as a signing bonus can be prorated over the remaining life of the contract -- thus lowering the current year's cap hit.
However, those cap charges that were pushed to future years don't just go away. Now, the player's salary cap hit in 2027 and beyond has increased.
If the Jaguars were to maximize their restructure opportunities this offseason, they could create an additional $61.2 million in salary cap space.
How much cap space could each NFL team free up with simple restructures?
— SFdata9ers🏈📊 (@sfdata9ers) February 11, 2026
1. DAL $131M
2. DET $128M
3. KC $109M
...
32. PHI $0.2M 😅
Data: @Jason_OTC (02/11/2026)
A simple restructure converts payments into prorated signing bonuses spread over the remaining years of the… pic.twitter.com/knNG9kAbzB
In need of cap space, we can venture to guess that there will be some contracts restructured this offseason, but it won't be to the fullest extent, like this graphic shows. That would drastically impact the Jaguars' salary cap situation in future years.
With free agency now less than a month away, any salary cap maneuvering that the Jaguars are going to do will likely be done in the coming weeks.
This article originally appeared on Jaguars Wire: Good news and bad news for Jaguars' 2026 salary cap sitaution