Dead Money

[Direckshun]

By my math, there is nearly a billion dollars in dead money on NFL caps this year.

Over $828 million.

Nearly a billion dollars spent by 32 NFL teams on players that no longer play for the team.

Analyzing these dead caps is fascinating to me this year -- in part because the Chiefs have absolutely lapped the entire league in how little dead money they've spent.

Starting with the good guys, the Chiefs are actually 2nd in the least dead money at $5.9m -- the Rams are first at $4.2m. However, $3.4m of that is on Chris Jones, who, last I checked, is still a Chief.

That leaves MVS at $2m, and less than $200,000 each on Darian Kinnard, Keondre Coburn, and Joshua Kaindoh.

All told, that puts the Chiefs non-Jones dead money at $2,436,500. That is almost half the Rams number, and is just a demonstration that Veach and the Chiefs sign an absurdly small number of contracts that they come to regret.

And if you're wondering, combined with his active cap hit, Chris Jones total 2024 cap hit is $11m. So.

Anyway, speaking of contracts that teams regret, the #1 team in dead money in 2024 are the Vikings at a whopping $57m:

• Kirk Cousins at $28.5m
• Danielle Hunter at $14.9m
• Marcus Davinport at $6.8m
• Dalvin Cook at $3.1m

No shocker here, but the Bills are 2nd at $55m:

• Stephon Diggs at $31.1m
• Leonard Floyd at $4.4m
• Ryan Bates at $4m
• Micah Hyde at $3.4m
• Mitch Morse at $3m
• Jordan Poyer at $2m
• 7 more players at a total of $6.75m -- just a mess of contracts here

And if you're wondering, the Bills #2 cap hit in 2024... is Von Miller at $15m. That's not exactly dead money, but it's close.

Jets are 3rd at $52m -- and there's no massive charges, just a ton of mid-level players that they've cut over the past couple years. They have a $2m cap hit for Mecole Hardman from last year, which is fun. (The Chiefs currently owe Hardman zero dollars.)

I'll talk about one more team, and that's the Chargers at #4 with $51.4m:

• JC Jackson at $20.8m
• Mike Williams at $12.5m
• Keenan Allen at $11.6m
• Eric Kendricks at $2.7m
• Sebastian Joseph Day at $2.5

Last thing I'll mention is that I'm not sure how OverTheCap is generating these numbers.

The Broncos are listed as having only $14.6m in official dead cap charges:

• Randy Gregory at $7.1m
• Justin Simmons at $3.8m
• several players at around $1m -- including Frank Clark

...however, they're showing Russell Wilson with a cap number for the Broncos at $53m all by himself, but he doesn't count as dead cap? So I'm not sure what that's about.

So the Broncos are actually at about $67.6m, which would by far be the most in the league. Except that OverTheCap didn't include Tre'Davious White for the Bills, who has a cap hit of $16.4m, which would actually give the Bills the highest dead cap at $71.3m.

Just further evidence to show that for all the praise we give Veach in terms of talent acquisition, he's put in literally peerless work on having brilliant cap management. The Chiefs, more than any other team in the league, have their money on the field.

Anyway, have a great Wednesday, everybody.

[notorious]

Very interesting. The mismanagement of some pretty good teams is their downfall.

[Direckshun]

Originally Posted by notorious

Very interesting. The mismanagement of some pretty good teams is their downfall.

The Bills have a functional dead cap of $71.3m and are paying Von Miller $15m. That's $87m that they're effectively flushing down the toilet this year.

That's... unfathomable levels of cap destruction.

[RedinTexas]

I watched the series about the Patriots dynasty on Apple tv and one of the points they made in one of the early episodes was that winning the Super Bowl was like a drug and once you tasted it, you had to have more. Then they detailed all the (known) cheating the Patriots engaged in after that in their attempts to keep winning.

The Bills did something similar in their quest to catch the Chiefs. They were monomaniacal in their efforts and put themselves further and further behind the 8-ball with all the contract idiocy and now the bill has come due. The fact that the Chiefs managed to just keep winning while simultaneously keeping themselves free of any salary cap hell is more mind boggling evidence of just how good this entire franchise really is right now.

[Pasta Little Brioni]

Josh Allen couldn't take advantage of a loaded team. I blame him. Now he gets scraps and forced to play hero ball.

[PatMahomesIsGod]

Quality post, Direc.

[Rainbarrel]

New York is probably working on selling Buffalo and it's money pit stadium to Canada. NFL will go international like it's wanted for years

[O.city]

It’s not really “they’re paying it this year” though. It’s just an accounting thing that it hits the books this year

It’s already been paid for the most part right?

Just a bit of a pet peeve

[DJ's left nut]

Originally Posted by notorious

Very interesting. The mismanagement of some pretty good teams is their downfall.

Some of it isn't mismanagement - it was just paying on credit. Void year dead money is planned, for example.

What's amazing is that we went back to back without any of those shenanigans.

[Mike in SW-MO]

"however, they're showing Russell Wilson with a cap number for the Broncos at $53m all by himself, but he doesn't count as dead cap? So I'm not sure what that's about."

Probably because it is a post-June 1 cut designation so he is technically still on the team & is not dead money for another month. My guess.

[Lzen]

Originally Posted by RedinTexas

I watched the series about the Patriots dynasty on Apple tv and one of the points they made in one of the early episodes was that winning the Super Bowl was like a drug and once you tasted it, you had to have more. Then they detailed all the (known) cheating the Patriots engaged in after that in their attempts to keep winning.

The Bills did something similar in their quest to catch the Chiefs. They were monomaniacal in their efforts and put themselves further and further behind the 8-ball with all the contract idiocy and now the bill has come due. The fact that the Chiefs managed to just keep winning while simultaneously keeping themselves free of any salary cap hell is more mind boggling evidence of just how good this entire franchise really is right now.

I couldn't bring myself to watch that Patriots doc on Apple TV. Is there even much of anything of value to it? Or is it the usual Patriots slobberfest?

[Balto]

Great post! I love all the numbers as well.

I do however suggest you go look at “saved” cap as well. While dead money is important, it’s just half of the actual calculation to get the “net” amount.

Dead cap - saved cap = Net cap hit/saved

And like DJ said, some teams just give out contracts with a couple extra years of dead money because it saves them cap now! Right or wrong the net is still the same and should not be counted.

[RedinTexas]

Originally Posted by Lzen

I couldn't bring myself to watch that Patriots doc on Apple TV. Is there even much of anything of value to it? Or is it the usual Patriots slobberfest?

It's not a slobberfest and it's actually pretty interesting.

[Mile High Mania]

Originally Posted by Mike in SW-MO

"however, they're showing Russell Wilson with a cap number for the Broncos at $53m all by himself, but he doesn't count as dead cap? So I'm not sure what that's about."

Probably because it is a post-June 1 cut designation so he is technically still on the team & is not dead money for another month. My guess.

Believe you are correct.

[notorious]

Originally Posted by Direckshun

The Bills have a functional dead cap of $71.3m and are paying Von Miller $15m. That's $87m that they're effectively flushing down the toilet this year.

That's... unfathomable levels of cap destruction.