Cardinals LB Jordan Hicks takes pay cut to save Arizona $3M in cap space

Jordan Hicks has taken a sizable pay cut to stay in Arizona. Veteran NFL reporter Howard Balzer writes that the veteran linebacker has restructured the final two years of his contract.

Hicks was set to have a $9M cap charge via a $5M base salary, a $1M roster bonus and $3M of his original signing bonus. The 28-year-old will now have a base salary of $2M, and the team replaced the roster bonus with $1M in per-game bonuses, thus leading to a reduced cap figure of $6M.

Hicks also reduced his 2022 compensation — which was identical to his 2021 numbers — to a $4.25M base salary, a $750K roster bonus and $1M in per-game roster bonuses. As Balzer explains, that roster bonus will likely be due at the beginning of the 2022 league year, at which point the Cardinals will have to decide whether they want to keep the veteran around.

The former third-rounder spent the first four seasons of his career with the Eagles before signing a four-year, $36M deal ($20M guaranteed) with the Cardinals in 2019. Hicks has started all 32 games for Arizona over the past two years, compiling 268 tackles, 11 tackles for loss and 1.5 sacks. Hicks will likely slide back into the starting lineup in 2021, but Isaiah Simmons, Tanner Vallejo and/or Zeke Turner could push him for playing time.