AP

The Rams have given themselves a little more salary cap room for the coming season.

Adam Schefter of ESPN reports that the team and defensive end Chris Long have agreed to restructure Long’s contract. They’ll convert some of his salary from this year into a signing bonus, which allows them to spread out the cap hit over the 2015 and 2016 seasons and cut $2 million from this year’s salary cap.

Every team needs to have some salary cap room to play with during the season in case they need to add players because of injuries or other unforeseen developments. The Rams already suffered as big an injury as they hope to see all year when quarterback Sam Bradford went down with a torn ACL, so they could use some of their newly created space for a move in that direction. There’s not much out there, though, and the team seems content to roll with Shaun Hill.

Another option could be to put cap space toward an extension for another player and defensive end Robert Quinn qualifies as a player in need of one. Quinn’s under team control for the next two years, so it’s not a pressing need and $2 million in space might not make a significant difference in what would be a sizable deal.