Baltimore, MD – The Baltimore Ravens and offensive tackle Bryant McKinnie have agreed to a contract restructuring that will keep the Pro Bowl lineman with the team for the upcoming season.
"He never left us and I'm excited about Bryant. I always have been," said Ravens head coach Jim Harbaugh on Tuesday. "He continues to work his way back to Pro bowl form. Both he and I agree, that's our goal."
McKinnie's base salary was reduced from $3.2 million to $2.2 million, but with incentives that can raise his pay back to the original amount, according to NFL.com, which quoted sources close to negotiations.
It was a stunning turnaround for the Miami-Florida product, who used his Twitter account earlier in the day to announce that a deal had not been struck and that he was about to be released.
McKinnie had been signed to a $7 million deal over two seasons back in August of 2011, but ran into problems during the lockout, needing to take out a loan from Pro Player Funding, according to the Sun.
The paper also revealed that the Ravens requested that McKinnie take a pay cut down to $1.6 million for this season, but are still on the hook for loan payments which amount to $4.5 million.
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