How Jaguars created salary cap space after first wave of free agency
· Yahoo Sports
The Jacksonville Jaguars have restructured the contract of punter Logan Cooke, creating additional salary cap space for 2026.
Visit raccoongame.org for more information.
The Jaguars also reworked Jakobi Meyer's deal recently as well.
Last June, Cooke signed a four-year, $16 million extension, which at that time, briefly made him the highest-paid punter in the NFL.
According to Spotrac, the Jaguars converted $3.2 million of Cooke's guaranteed salary into a signing bonus. One void year was also added to the deal.
This move created $2.56 million in cap space for this season.
The #Jaguars converted $3.2M of P Logan Cooke's guaranteed salary into signing bonus, adding 1 void year, clearing $2.56M of 2026 cap space.
— Spotrac (@spotrac) March 13, 2026
More:https://t.co/1M3G2RjRVB
In short, contract restructures take cap charges from the current year and push them to future years. The cap hit from a player's base salary counts 100% toward the current year's cap, but a signing bonus can be prorated over the life of a deal.
With the void year, that is not an extension, but rather a bookkeeping measure that puts more years on the contract on paper. Cooke is still set to be a free agent in 2030, at which point the $640,000 in cap charges from the void years will accelerate and come due as dead cap that year.
Jaguars updated salary cap outlook
According to Over the Cap, Jacksonville has $4.62 million in available salary cap space prior to this move being accounted for. So with a little math, we can project that the Jaguars have over $7 million in available cap space.
That still ranks near the bottom of the NFL.
The salary cap is a likely factor in the Jaguars' quiet start to free agency, but during his free agency press conference, GM James Gladstone explained the big reason behind the Jaguars' lack of free agency moves.
Even if the Jaguars do not plan to be super active in free agency, additional space is needed for cap expenses coming down the road, such as signing the incoming draft class, along with having reserves available for any in-season spending.
This article originally appeared on Jaguars Wire: NFL free agency: Jaguars restructure contract of P Logan Cooke