49ers restructure Ahmad Brooks contract, clear more salary cap space

Jason Fitzgerald of Over The Cap is reporting Ahmad Brooks has restructured his contract, and now has a base salary of $855,000. Fitzgerald did not know how the money was converted, but that it cleared approximately $2 million in cap space. Brian McIntyre is now reporting the deal includes a $450,000 reporting bonus in 2015, and a 2015 cap figure of $9.6 million. Brian also tweeted this out:

@Tre9er Received $3.395M of his $4.25M base salary in a signing bonus. Gives 49ers some room, adds $848,750 per year to 2015-17 cap numbers

— Brian McIntyre (@brian_mcintyre) July 29, 2014

The NFLPA salary database confirms the salary change, and their cap space page indicates the San Francisco 49ers now have $9,999,543. I was confused by that because as of July 22, that database indicated the 49ers had $5,902,293 in cap space. I spoke with McIntyre, and he said the cap page removed Alex Boone because of his "Did Not Report" status. That means, the 49ers have $7,999,543 in cap space.

This would seemingly indicate the 49ers are getting ready to get an extension done. Teams like to have $5 million in space, give or take, to carry into the season in case of any emergencies. The 49ers could decide to just roll this additional $3 million over to 2015, but that would seem odd. Why borrow against the future to just roll it back to the future?

Naturally, this could mean a whole host of players are up for a contract extension. Alex Boone makes the most sense, although as we know, the 49ers do not like making exceptions when it comes to holdouts. Michael Crabtree is certainly a possibility as well. The 49ers have numerous 2015 free agents, including Frank Gore, Glenn Dorsey, Blaine Gabbert, Kendall Hunter, Mike Iupati, Chris Culliver, and C.J. Spillman.

I can't even begin to guess who might get an extension, but that won't stop the speculation! How about a Kevin McDermott 10-year deal? Maybe Phil Dawson wants to play until he's 50!