Rams restructure – Three days after acquiring Myles Garrett from the Cleveland Browns, the Los Angeles Rams reworked his contract in a way that gives them extra room to manage future salary-cap accounting—using eight option bonuses and eight void years to push roughly $39.9 mill
The timing mattered for the Los Angeles Rams: on June 4. they restructured Myles Garrett’s contract just three days after trading for the star edge rusher from the Cleveland Browns. The league got another piece of the puzzle days later, when the contract details were published on June 10 via Spotrac.
What the Rams did wasn’t a standard tweak. It was a financial reshaping designed to move how Garrett’s money lands on the salary cap—an approach that mirrors the kind of long-horizon flexibility Los Angeles has used before, even if the structure and pay mechanics differ.
Garrett’s reworked deal runs for five years and carries a total value of $208.2 million, according to the contract figures published June 10. The AAV is listed at $41.64 million. Garrett’s guaranteed money is $99 million.
The numbers in the front of the deal are substantial. The restructure includes a $35.7 million signing bonus and $37 million guaranteed this year.
But the part that can change how the Rams breathe financially is what was added after the headline term and total value: the team added eight option bonuses and eight void years to the back end of Garrett’s contract.
Spotrac’s figures show why the void-year machinery matters. Nearly $40 million of the $208.2 million contract currently won’t affect the Rams’ cap numbers until 2031. Even though Garrett remains under contract through 2030. the restructuring allows Los Angeles to spread $39.9 million in cap hits from 2031 to 2034—and potentially push even more of the accounting impact later. into the years between 2035 and 2038.
The Rams’ added option bonuses come with a built-in decision point for each of the final four years of Garrett’s deal. For 2027 through 2030, Los Angeles can choose whether to exercise the option bonuses. If the Rams need additional cap space in a particular season. exercising one option bonus for that year would count toward a cap hit in one of the future void years.
A specific example illustrates the concept: if the Rams exercised Garrett’s option bonus in 2027 to create cap space for the next season, the cap hit tied to that option bonus would be kicked to the 2035 void year. From there, the same logic can apply depending on which option bonuses are exercised.
As of June 2026, the last four of the eight void years are “vested,” Spotrac reports. That means the void years between 2031 and 2034 are tied to $39.9 million in cap hits. while the void years between 2035 and 2038 currently carry no additional dead cap. The cap shift only becomes real for those later years once the corresponding option bonuses for 2027 through 2030 are exercised. effectively turning additional “voided” contract years into the mechanism that accelerates accounting into 2035 through 2038.
There’s also a hard stop embedded in how these structures work. Once Garrett is no longer on the Rams’ roster. all of the dead cap pushed into void years gets accelerated onto the contemporary league year. So if Garrett isn’t extended. the cap hits Los Angeles has pushed into the 2031 through 2038 seasons would ultimately hit the Rams’ cap space in the 2031 league year rather than remaining spread out in the way deferred salary can.
Garrett is the one constant in this story; the Rams are manipulating timing. The option bonus system is essentially a cap-management strategy to kick the hit from Garrett’s deal farther down the timeline. Garrett receives the same cash regardless of whether an option bonus is exercised. The change is strictly about how the money counts against the salary cap—whether it lands in the present for cap calculations or is pushed into later accounting years.
That distinction matters in the comparison the Rams’ deal invites. The story of financial creativity is familiar to Los Angeles sports fans through the organization’s blockbuster approach in baseball: the Dodgers deferred $680 million of the total $700 million value of Shohei Ohtani’s deal to 2034 and beyond. But Ohtani’s contract is structured so it will pay out $68 million annually for 10 years after his deal ends in 2033. while Garrett’s deal keeps his cash the same and shifts the cap accounting instead.
Even with the flexibility the Rams have built into Garrett’s contract. the practical bottom line is clear: the restructure gives Los Angeles multiple decision points to manage cap pressure in upcoming seasons. while the consequences ultimately land when Garrett leaves the roster unless the situation changes through an extension.
Myles Garrett Los Angeles Rams Cleveland Browns contract restructure salary cap void years option bonuses Spotrac NFL offseason financial flexibility