What would it mean for if Alex Smith restructured his contract with the Kansas City Chiefs?

With the start of the 2015 NFL free agency period just a few hours away, we've been getting questions about how the Kansas City Chiefs can create more salary cap space. One of those questions is about restructuring Alex Smith's contract.

Noted cap expert and CBS Sports contributor Joel Corry was on KTGR with @BKSportsTalk recently and explained exactly what this is and how it would affect the Chiefs this year and in future years. I transcribed the relevant portions below. Here's a link to Alex Smith's cap numbers so you can follow along.

What would the contract restructure do this year?

Corry: "If you take $10.9 million of his $11.9 million base salary and convert it into a signing bonus, you're going to pick up almost $8.2 million in cap room [this year]."

What will it do to the cap in the future?

Corry: "Any time you do a restructure where you're lowering a cap number in a current year, you're raising a cap number in future years. Right now Alex Smith has a $17.8 million cap number in 2016. If the restructure I suggested is done then his cap number is going to grow to a little over $20.5 million in 2016. His 2016 salary becomes fully guaranteed of this upcoming league year. So he's not going anywhere next year. The real thing is what it does in 2017. It goes from $16.9 million to $19.625 on the cap hit."

Check out the full audio here.