After the Detroit Lions’ loss to the Minnesota Vikings on Christmas Day, the only thing anyone wanted to talk about was Jared Goff and the near-$70 million cap hit he has coming up in 2026. The fact is, if you think he steps onto the field with that cap hit in 2026, you’re crazy.

We’ve been talking about this for some time now, and this is the prime time for Goff to work out his contract restructure. A restructuring that can make for a huge offseason for the Lions. Here’s how it works:

It’s all about the void years

Right now, if you look at Goff’s contract, he has one void year, and that year doesn’t have any money attached to it — it’s just a fake season to spread his signing bonus, lowering the short-term cap hit. That void year is going to be where the Lions can put some money to help lower Goff’s cap hit in 2026. Let’s break it down.

There are two different ways the Lions can go about this. They can stick with the one void year they have now or add additional void years and spread things out more — for the second option, Goff would have to agree to it. Here’s what it would look like with both. 

Without adding an extra void year

• $55 million-$1.3 million (minimum base salary) = $53.7 million new signing bonus
• $53.7 million/4 = $13.425 million per season (signing bonus proration)
• Cap hit for 2026: $1.3 million base + $13.425 million restructure bonus + $14.6 million from past signing bonuses.
• Cap savings for 2026: $40.275 million

With adding max void years

• $55 million-$1.3 million (minimum base salary) = $53.7 million new signing bonus
• $53.7 million/5 = $10.74 million per season (signing bonus proration)
• Cap hit for 2026: $1.3 million base + $10.74 million restructure bonus + $14.6 million from past signing bonuses.
• Cap savings for 2026: $42.96 million

Adding extra void years might look attractive because it adds nearly $3 million and lowers his 2026 cap hit to $1.3 million. But that pushes off a lot of money to the future and makes things a little more difficult later. Essentially, they would have a significant cap hit from Goff in 2030, when he’s 36 and may no longer be on the team.

The cleaner way to do it is the first way — and the Lions could even add a real year. It extends Goff’s cap hits out to 2029, and that void year becomes an extra year for him, but it also gives the Lions an escape route out of the deal after the 2028 season if Goff regresses.

That would open up $40.275 million for the Lions to use this offseason and move them from near the bottom of the league in cap space to near the top five. That’s assuming Goff is the only player who restructures his deal.

The downside of a restructure is that it adds the same amount to future years. In the case without an extra void year, Goff’s 2027 cap hit would jump from $54.6 million to $68.025 million.

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