Remember, Payton Manning was the highest paid player in the NFL not so long ago. Every season after that billing he restructured to make concessions for salary cap.

Every one of those guys will likely be asked to return at a lower salary, which will probably be at market value.

Smith, Harper, Vilma and Ellis do not suck, they just aren't nearly as good as their 2013 salary. All 4 know it and would be fools to not listen to counter offers by Loomis.

I'd wager 3 of those 4 are back here next year.

True, and don't forget...Restructuring simply means re-arranging the money. Its almost always benefits the player by converting more and more of their yearly contract to up front bonus which goes into their bank account as the ink dries on the new contract.

Players benefit from re-structuring. Owners, not so much.

In a case like Vilma, thats not the typical re-structure. Thats gonna be asking the man to re-negotiate his value since his contract now exceeds his market-value by a wide margin.

He's faced with renegotiating more toward market value or forcing the team to release him and then he can negotiate with all 32 teams. I think Vilma's happy here so I'd imagine he'd likely want to return if we offer him fair market value.