Last week, Devin McCourty announced his NFL retirement.

But the 35-year-old former safety hasn’t filed his retirement papers yet, and there’s a good reason for that.

McCourty and the Patriots agreed to tack one year onto his current contract for the veteran minimum $1.165 million, a way to create cap space for the team on the eve of free agency, a source told the Herald. McCourty’s contract had been set to expire Wednesday and saddle the Patriots with a $9 million dead cap hit because of attached void years. Instead, the Pats have created an additional $5 million in cap room this year and reduced McCourty’s dead cap hit to $6.2 million, which will be pushed to 2024 if the retirement is finalized after June 1.

Prior to the report,  the Patriots held the sixth-most cap space in the NFL at $24.8 million, per Over The Cap. With $5 million more in space, they would rank fourth. So far in free agency, they have re-signed seven players, including cornerback Jonathan Jones, made one outside addition and lost wide receiver Jakobi Meyers to the Raiders. The Pats also tendered restricted free agents Myles Bryant and Yodny Cajuste.

ESPN first reported McCourty’s restructured deal.