After mostly watching other teams make moves ahead of free agency, the Jacksonville Jaguars are getting in the fun. Just one day after officially agreeing to a one-year deal with tight end Quintin Morris, the team's brass is starting to clean up the cap.
The Jags were around $15.9 milion over the cap when they inked Morris. With the contract restructuring of a veteran player, they're one step closer to getting out of the red.
The Jaguars just restructured Patrick Mekari's contract
Michael Ginnetti of Spotrac reported on Twitter that the Jaguars added three void years to the contract of offensive lineman Patrick Mekari to free up $7.36 million in space, noting that they converted $9.2 million of his salary into a signing bonus.
Here are Mekari's updated cap hits:
- 2026: $7.3 M
- 2027: $18.1M
- 2028: $5.52 M (void)
An undrafted free agent in 2019, Mekari spent six seasons with the Baltimore Ravens before he signed a five-year deal worth $35 million with Jacksonville in 2025. One of the reasons he caught the team's attention was his ability to line up anywhere across the line of scrimmage, having played all positions during his stint with Baltimore.
In his last year with the Ravens. Mekari settled at left guard, but he switched to right guard with the Jags. Although the former Cal Golden Bears left a bit desired, the fact that he switched sides might've played a role in his unremarkable outing. With one year of experience under his belt, he should be able to make substantial progress in 2026.
By reworking his contract, the team's brass is showing confidence in Mekari to do precisely just that.
You may also like: Post-NFL Combine 3-round mock draft has the Jags dreaming of Super Bowl 61
Update: Following Mekeri's restructure, the Jags have reworked Eric Murray's deal, convering $4.2 million of his salary into a signing bonus to free up $3.36 million in space.
The #Jaguars converted $4.2M of Eric Murray's 2026 salary into signing bonus, adding 3 void years, clearing $3.36M of space.
— Spotrac (@spotrac) March 6, 2026
Jacksonville still has work to do to get compliant next week. https://t.co/s51ZBm8NUs
The Jaguars next need to free up cap space with Josh Hines-Allen
The Patrick Mekari contract restructuring news doesn't come as a surprise. The Jaguars needed to get under the cap, and reworking his deal helped them achieve that. Next, the team needs to rework Josh Hines-Allen's deal.
Allen inked a five-year, $141.25 million deal in 2024. He isn't going anywhere anytime soon but has one of the biggest cap hits on the team going into next season. Currently, he's set to count $23.4 million against the cap and has a base salary of $7 million for 2026. The front office could convert around $5 million of that into a signing bonus to free up that amount of space. That would leave Jacksonville around just $3 million over the cap.
Of course, the Jags will have to keep making moves aside from restructuring Hines-Allen's contract. Ideally, they want to have at least $20 million in space to spend once they get out of the red. They can get there by releasing a handful of players (Chuma Edoga, Hunter Long), reworking more deals (Arik Armstead), and trading players (Walker Little).
Once the Jaguars can free up enough space, they can turn their attention to addressing the larger scale roster and putting together the best possible team to compete in 2026.