To help bring the Detroit Lions into compliance under the salary cap, veteran defensive end Kyle Vanden Bosch agreed to restructure his contract, Dave Birkett of the Detroit Free Press reports.
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According to Birkett, Vanden Bosch lowered his $5 million base salary to the league minimum ($925,000) and took the remaining $4.075 million as a signing bonus.
Since Vanden Bosch was signed through the 2013 season, in order to maximize the short-term cap savings of the restructure, the Lions added two voidable seasons onto the contract, with base salaries of $8 million in both 2014 and 2015, to allow the bonus to be prorated over four seasons.
The simple restructure lowers Vanden Bosch's cap number from $7,667,500 to $4,611,250, a cap savings of just over $3.05 million for the 2012 season.
As Birkett noted, the Lions were around $700,000 over the cap earlier this week, so the additional room will allow them to carry a practice squad and make some roster moves over the next few months.
While the Lions do gain some immediate salary-cap relief, the restructure also increases Vanden Bosch's 2013 cap number to over $10.6 million.
After this season, the Lions may need to make a hard decision on what will be a 34-year-old defensive end, who according to a source with knowledge of his contract, is scheduled to receive a $2 million roster bonus on the seventh day of the 2013 league year.
With the Lions needing to address the Cliff Avril contract, Vanden Bosch could be asked to restructure again, or move on.
Follow Brian McIntyre on Twitter _@brianmcintyre_.
