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.

[displacedinMN]

purely amazing and gross at the same time.

The Broncos will be broke for a long time

It proves Herschel Walker type deals never work.

[Bowser]

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.

Man, the Bills were REALLY through with Stephon Diggs. Would love to know exactly what happened between Diggs and the team that they would trade him to a contender and still eat over 31 million worth of cap hit. They wanted him the hell out of there.

[scho63]

A past friend and golf buddy from NJ was the top salary cap expert working for the NFL head office and then went to the Texans to run football operations.

He tried explaining the salary cap to a bunch of us one day after golf and no one could understand it.

Really complex......

[BigRedChief]

We are paying Mahomes top $, we can't afford dead cap money. It would kill us that year. As long as Mahomes is upright and not running for his life at the snap of the ball, we have a realistic chance to win a SB.

[DJ's left nut]

Originally Posted by Bowser

Man, the Bills were REALLY through with Stephon Diggs. Would love to know exactly what happened between Diggs and the team that they would trade him to a contender and still eat over 31 million worth of cap hit. They wanted him the hell out of there.

That money was gonna be on the cap next season anyway.

Ultimately they were willing to eat a little shit this year to save $19 million over the next 2 seasons (the base salary they avoided this year).

If you view it in the context of them treating 2024 as a stepback season to clean up the books (Miller should be off in 2025 as well) before re-loading again, it's a pretty smart move.

The Bills plan seems really clear at this point - they're not trying real hard for 2024. They're trying to plan for life after the Bengals start losing WRs and Kelce ages out. They pulled the chute on what appeared to be a 3-year window around the Von Miller deal and are looking to set up a new one.

It's really not a bad plan.

[Bowser]

Originally Posted by DJ's left nut

That money was gonna be on the cap next season anyway.

Ultimately they were willing to eat a little shit this year to save $19 million over the next 2 seasons (the base salary they avoided this year).

If you view it in the context of them treating 2024 as a stepback season to clean up the books (Miller should be off in 2025 as well) before re-loading again, it's a pretty smart move.

The Bills plan seems really clear at this point - they're not trying real hard for 2024. They're trying to plan for life after the Bengals start losing WRs and Kelce ages out. They pulled the chute on what appeared to be a 3-year window around the Von Miller deal and are looking to set up a new one.

It's really not a bad plan.

That makes sense when it's spelled out like that.

My brain went full TMZ thinking that Allen really did bang Diggs' ex (or vice-versa?), and it had become way too toxic there to move forward.

[Bl00dyBizkitz]

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.

13 seconds completely broke the Bills. Kind of hard to blame them, they felt they played a perfect game and still lost to their arch rival. How do you do better than perfect? Gotta go all-in, I guess.

Still amazes me how 1 single loss sends one of the most powerful franchises spiraling out of control.

[DJ's left nut]

Originally Posted by Bowser

That makes sense when it's spelled out like that.

My brain went full TMZ thinking that Allen really did bang Diggs' ex (or vice-versa?), and it had become way too toxic there to move forward.

It's how I wanted to handle the Clark deal and tried to point it out to the "He costs the same to cut as he does to keep" crowd.

That cost just gets sent to the next year. For the Bills, it cost the same to keep him as it would to cut him...over 1 season. But over 2, you get the benefit of the subtracted base.

It's why most cap maneuvers really need to be looked at over a 2 year window and sometimes 3. There are ways to work it that make a lot of sense when viewed in the context of possible restructures. When you do that - and focus on base salary or roster bonuses being freed up (because the signing/restructure bonuses are baked into the cake either way) you can really see what the end game was.

This was all about freeing up that $19 million in base salary over 2 seasons. the rest of the damage was just a matter of when it hit. And whether it hits in 24 or 25 is immaterial in the rollover era, especially when you have a QB contract that you can move money around on to make things largely even out.

[Bowser]

Originally Posted by Bl00dyBizkitz

13 seconds completely broke the Bills. Kind of hard to blame them, they felt they played a perfect game and still lost to their arch rival. How do you do better than perfect? Gotta go all-in, I guess.

Still amazes me how 1 single loss sends one of the most powerful franchises spiraling out of control.

The Texans, the Bills, the Titans.......

Mahomes just straight up wrecks franchises in the playoffs.

[BigRedChief]

Originally Posted by DJ's left nut

The Bills plan seems really clear at this point - they're not trying real hard for 2024. They're trying to plan for life after the Bengals start losing WRs and Kelce ages out. They pulled the chute on what appeared to be a 3-year window around the Von Miller deal and are looking to set up a new one.

It's really not a bad plan.

Yep, they cant seriously compete this year.. Even if they win the 13 second game they would have lost to the Bengals in next weeks game.

Last year was their chance. Agree with your theory. Wait till the Bengals lose their WR's and Kelce retires to take your SB shot again.

[Pitt Gorilla]

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

Over $828 million."


And only around half of that is due to Russel Wilson.

[ROYC75]

Originally Posted by DJ's left nut

That money was gonna be on the cap next season anyway.

Ultimately they were willing to eat a little shit this year to save $19 million over the next 2 seasons (the base salary they avoided this year).

If you view it in the context of them treating 2024 as a stepback season to clean up the books (Miller should be off in 2025 as well) before re-loading again, it's a pretty smart move.

The Bills plan seems really clear at this point - they're not trying real hard for 2024. They're trying to plan for life after the Bengals start losing WRs and Kelce ages out. They pulled the chute on what appeared to be a 3-year window around the Von Miller deal and are looking to set up a new one.

It's really not a bad plan.

It is exactly what they are doing, And it's the Smartest move for them.

[Marcellus]

Originally Posted by DJ's left nut

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.

Glad to hear you finally realized the value of Frank Clark.

[ModSocks]

Good thread, Direkshun.

[scho63]

Originally Posted by ModSocks

Good thread, Direkshun.

I concur!