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When Steve Keim made the move for Jamar Taylor it was for little compensation on the end of the Cleveland Browns, it looked like a great deal for the Arizona Cardinals.
The Cardinals received a talented cornerback who projects as a suitable CB2 with the reality that he is better served as a CB3 if one of a plethora of other options perform and step up to be the starting cornerback opposite Patrick Peterson.
Then, Field Yates gave us even more reason that Steve Keim made this deal:
Source: the in the reworked contract he agreed to before being traded to the Cardinals, CB Jamar Taylor's agreed to drop his base salary from $4.25M to $975K. His cap number decreased by $2.75M.
— Field Yates (@FieldYates) May 21, 2018
Based on the numbers from Spotrac, Taylor is only being paid $975,000 and his cap hit this year is only $1,775,000.
Now, they will be paying him over $4 million in 2019, but that is only if he is on the roster, as his dead money number is $525,000.
That means the Cardinals, after trading for Jamar Taylor, have nearly $14 million in cap space.
Meaning a player like Bashaud Breeland can shop around and come back to AZ if he feels like it is his best chance to cash in after the foot incident.
Or they can go and pay a Kenny Vaccaro or Tre Boston to a contract and still have plenty of cash on hand.
This wasn’t just a smart move because of Taylor and the need he will fill. No, it was a smart move because they get a better cornerback than likely anyone they have drafted or signed for 2018, at a discount with little dead money to show if they decide to move on after this season.