The Falcons didn’t have to make any major cuts or restructures to trade Ryan. They didn’t even need to make it a post June 1 trade. They cleared their books, went and got an actual QB this year, and now may take the division.
The Broncos had to do a post June 1 release and three restructures, but each of those restructures were for salaries that were already guaranteed. Since they weren’t maxing out every year before that, they are going into 2025 with $70m in space, even with a dead cap hit of $32m from Russell Wilson.