Quarterback Jimmy Garoppolo made history with a contract worth $27.5 million per year for five years with the San Francisco 49ers. It was structured in a way to frontload the deal because San Francisco had more than $100 million in cap space this year.

The details came in Friday, as shared by ESPN’s Adam Schefter.

He will have a salary cap hit of $37 million this year. Then it never goes above $27 million, even dropping to $20 million in 2019.

The Arizona Cardinals are believed to be among the teams expected to pursue quarterback Kirk Cousins, who will get even more money in his contract. However, they are not in a good situation with the salary cap this year. As it stands, they have only $22.7 million in cap space. That will increase as they make salary-saving moves.

But the Cardinals can make a contract with Cousins worth, even with more money. It just has to be structured differently.

San Francisco did not pay much in a signing bonus, limiting the prorated hit on the cap across the life of the deal. But they paid him big money in the first year and first two because they have cap space.

The Cardinals can afford a contract that averages $29 million per year for Cousins — five years, $145 million — which is probably what it will take to sign him, considering the competition there will be for him.

Here is a rough explanation how to do it:

Give him a $20 million signing bonus up front and $15 million in salary. He would count $19 million against the cap in 2018, giving the Cardinals room for other free agent signings.

Give him a $20 million roster bonus at the beginning of the 2019 league year and a $15 million salary. That is the year with the big cap hit — $39 million.

In each season thereafter, he would get $25 million in total cash (bonuses, salary). He has a cap hit of $29 million each of those three years.

The Cardinals can make the big cap hit work in 2019 because, as of now, they have more than $103 million available cap space. They will have the ability to work around that big number.

Garoppolo gets $42 million in cash in Year 1 and $61.2 million in the first two years.

A deal structured as described above would put $35 million in cash in Cousins’ pocket, less than Garoppolo, but would give him $70 million in the first two years, nearly $9 million more than Garoppolo.

And there is a reasonable out for the Cardinals after three seasons. They could move on from him with $8 million dead money in 2021, but would save $21 million.

If Cousins is the man the Cardinals want, they can make it work, and it won’t completely handcuff them with other possible moves.

Listen to the latest from Cards Wire’s Jess Root on the Rise Up, See Red podcast. Subscribe on Apple podcasts or Stitcher Radio.

newsletter Get 10 hot stories each day Thanks for signing up.

Please check your email for a confirmation. Thanks for signing up.

Please check your email for a confirmation.