After 49ers linebacker Navorro Bowman suffered a brutally-bad ACL tear in the middle of last season's playoffs, he's not projected to return to the field until the middle of 2014.
But he's going to be getting a lot more of his contract upfront, as the National Post's Aaron Wilson reports the 49ers have restructured his deal to save $2.616 million of cap space. Instead of paying out his $4 million base salary throughout the season, the 49ers are converting $3.27 million of that into a signing bonus, lowering his base salary to $730,000.
That also lowers his 2014 salary-camp number to $4.434 million. From 2015 until the last year of his contract in 2018, Bowman's cap number will range from $8.4 million to $10.15 million. Meanwhile, Bowman is scheduled to make a base salary of $4.7 million in 2015, $5.85 million in 2016, $6.75 million in 2017 and $8.75 million in 2018.
According to the NFLPA, the 49ers now have about $2.8 million of salary cap room.
