Report: Broncos restructure Joe Flacco's contract, free up significant cap space

With the Denver Broncos just two days away from opening their regular season at the Oakland Raiders, a new report has revealed that GM John Elway found a way to free up significant cap space by restructuring Joe Flacco's contract.

The #Broncos did a simple restructure on QB Joe Flacco’s contract, converting $17 million of his base salary into a signing bonus and adding two voidable years to clear $13.6M in 2019 cap space. Still due $20.25M in 2020 and $24.25M in 2021.
— Tom Pelissero (@TomPelissero) September 7, 2019

Freeing up $13.6M is significant and speaks to a team moving money around for a reason. The Broncos are now well under the cap with the Flacco restructure, with around $12M in cap space.

Why did Elway want to free up that $13.6M at the cost of adding two additional years to Flacco's deal? It's a question I'll be pondering here for a while.

This is pure speculation, but perhaps the Broncos are creating room with an eye toward the left tackle position. All that stands between Joe Flacco and a ruined season for Denver is Garett Bolles. That's a scary notion.

However, most teams have settled in on the players they're going to battle with this season. Expensive, quality left tackles don't grow on trees and NFL teams covet them. But if the Broncos wanted to make an offer to a prospective team, the cap space is now there.

Regarding Flacco, as Pelissero tweeted, the QB's salary numbers for 2020 and 2021 remain fixed. He's still in a very flexible, team-friendly contract that the Broncos could get out of next spring with little-to-no cap ramifications.

However, if Flacco hits it out of the park this year, he stands to earn every nickel on his 2020 contract with the Broncos. If he struggles, the Drew Lock era will officially begin next year.

Follow Chad on Twitter @ChadNJensen and @MileHighHuddle.