The San Francisco 49ers have restructured the contract of defensive tackle DeForest Buckner, converting $6.5 million of his salary into a signing bonus and adding two void years to free up $5.2 million in 2026 salary-cap space, according to Spotrac.
The move lowers his current-year cap hit to roughly $2.7 million while pushing remaining charges into 2027 void years that exist only for accounting purposes.
For a team that entered the season near the bottom of the league in available cap room, the adjustment provides immediate flexibility without altering Buckner’s actual cash compensation this year.
Buckner’s return to the Bay Area this fall closed a six-year circle.
Drafted seventh overall by the 49ers out of Oregon in 2016, the 6-foot-7, 295-pound tackle developed into a Pro Bowl interior presence before San Francisco traded him to the Indianapolis Colts in 2020 for a first-round pick.
The Colts promptly signed him to a four-year, $84 million extension; later, after he was due $20.25 million in the final year of that deal, Indianapolis added a two-year, $46 million extension.
By late October 2026 the Colts, struggling through a 2-5 start and embarking on a broader teardown, dealt the 32-year-old back to San Francisco in exchange for a 2027 fourth-round selection.
The 49ers absorbed a $7.9 million remaining cap charge on the expiring contract at the time of the trade.
On the field Buckner has remained productive. Across eight games split between the Colts and 49ers he has recorded 32 tackles, four sacks, a fumble recovery and three passes defended.
The numbers reflect the same interior disruption that marked his earlier career, when he posted double-digit sacks in 2018 and earned first-team All-Pro honors in 2020.
His presence has also helped stabilize a 49ers defensive line that has dealt with injuries among its other interior players.
Void years are a common NFL mechanism that allows teams to spread signing-bonus proration over a maximum of five years, reducing the immediate cap hit while deferring dead-money obligations.
In Buckner’s case the two dummy seasons mean the newly converted bonus will largely hit the 2027 ledger rather than the current one.
Because he is scheduled to become an unrestricted free agent after 2026, the 49ers gain short-term breathing room without committing long-term salary. The restructure does not change the cash he will receive this season; it simply reclassifies how that money counts against the cap.
For San Francisco the extra $5.2 million arrives at a useful moment.
The club has already used midseason trades to reinforce both the defensive line and the receiving corps, and the additional space can cover any further roster additions, injury replacements or potential year-end extensions.
Buckner, a decade into a career that has now spanned two stints with the same franchise, continues to deliver the interior production that made him a first-round investment in the first place, while the accounting adjustment keeps the books flexible for the remainder of the season.
