Arizona Cardinals offensive lineman Justin Pugh Mark J. Rebilas-USA TODAY Sports

Guard Justin Pugh accepts pay cut to stay with Cardinals

By Zac Wassink | Last updated 3/23/21

Left guard Justin Pugh signed a five-year contract that could've been worth up to $45 million to join the Arizona Cardinals in March 2018. That deal became all the more expensive when news broke that the salary cap is set to decrease in 2021 by roughly $16 million from the previous year because of revenue lost amid the COVID-19 pandemic.

The 30-year-old announced on Tuesday via Twitter that he accepted a pay cut to remain with the franchise.

To clarify I restructured my contract and took a pay cut to stay with the @AZCardinals. I love Arizona and want to finish my career here. Now let’s go win a ring.
— Justin Pugh (@JustinPugh) March 23, 2021

Darren Urban of the Cardinals' official website explained:

"The veteran also agreed to a pay reduction (a haircut, if you will) that lowers his cap number from more than $11 million this season to a little less than $7 million by dropping his salary/bonus by about $4 million, according to overthecap.com and NFLPA.com."

Michael David Smith of Pro Football Talk wrote that Pugh carried an $11.2 million salary-cap hit for 2021 before reworking his contract.

Per Pro Football Reference, Pugh has started in 31 of 32 regular-season games for Arizona over the past two seasons.

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