NFL salary cap: What are void years and why are teams using them?

On Wednesday, the Buffalo Bills restructured safety Micah Hyde’s contract to spread out his salary cap hit over multiple seasons. With only two years left on his current contract, Buffalo wanted the benefit of the maximum amount of salary cap relief, so they added three void years to the deal, making the entire contract five full years.

Contract restructures

Contract restructures like this take money already allocated on the books in roster bonus and base salary and reallocate it. It makes the player happy because they get all of their money up front and it makes the team happy because they get to clear cap space. These restructures are only done with players that the team knows are going to…