On Friday morning, ESPN’s Field Yates reported that the Patriots converted $8.5 million of Stephon Gilmore’s 2019 salary into a signing bonus, clearing $5,666,667 of cap space this season. The shut-down corner’s 2019 cap hit now stands at $9,170,833 — accounting for 4.65% of the club’s adjusted cap figure this season.
With New England’s cap space sinking below the $3 million mark following their flurry of bargain signings throughout the first week and a half of free agency, Gilmore’s restructure was perhaps the second-most anticipated cap space-creating vehicle of the offseason — trailing only Tom Brady’s eventual contract extension.