A few days ago, we weren’t entirely sure whether or not Vance McDonald was going to be a part of the Pittsburgh Steelers in 2020. A week ago, it was even more uncertain when the status of the Collective Bargaining Agreement remained up in the air. But the team left virtually no doubt what their intentions are with him after they restructured his 2020 base salary, converting it to a guaranteed signing bonus, in order to create salary cap space.
While it doesn’t necessarily have to be the case, it is almost universally the case that teams choose to renegotiate the contracts of players in whom they have a high degree of confidence are going to be a part of the team.