Carson Palmer agrees to contract restructure that will save Arizona Cardinals more than $7 M in salary cap space

Arizona Cardinals quarterback Carson Palmer met with the media on Thursday and answered questions about his rehab. He's ahead of schedule and began running two weeks ago, as he's hopeful he will be ready to go by OTAs and mini-camp.

That was all fine and dandy, but he dropped a bomb when he was asked about the possibility of restructuring his contract. Palmer announced he had restructured it about a month ago.

Did he? Everyone went crazy following that looking something on the books. It took Kent Somers getting clarification from someone in the front office to make clear up what was said.

What Palmer meant by it, is that that he agreed to the restructure, but won't sign it unless Steve Keim asks him to.

The reported restructure would drop his current $14.5 million cap hit to almost $7.4 million this season.

The restructure would simply change some language. He is due to be paid a $9.5 million roster bonus. Roster bonuses count against the salary cap only one season. By changing the roster bonus to an option bonus or a restructure bonus, the $9.5 million would be prorated over the four years on his contract.

The one things this will do is push dead money down the line. It pushes his 2016 cap hit to over $17 million and would create over $13 million in dead money if the team moves on from him after the 2015 season.

Palmer is not alone in the front office campaign to get some spending money. Larry Fitzgerald and Darnell Dockett were the first to be asked. Fitzgerald obviously fixed his cap hit, while Dockett took the other route and eventually got released. Other names who have reportedly been asked, and could be in the same boat as Palmer are Jared Veldheer, Calais Campbell, and Patrick Peterson.

With the team set to be an estimated 17 million to spend this offseason, I doubt anyone will be asked to sign their restructured contract, unless the team does decided to pursue a top tier talent.

We discussed some salary cap implications earlier if Palmer or Campbell restructured.