Examining dead money and injured reserve spending at NFL’s quarter-season mark
 

Nothing may be more frustrating to an NFL front office than paying players to not play. Whether it is due to injury or cutting a player while still having a significant salary cap commitment to him, throwing away money in the NFL — even in a world where teams routinely have well over $100 million to spend in a year — is not the ideal way to do business.

There are two ways that cap space can be eaten up for players who are not on the field for a given team. One is, as mentioned, via injury. Players placed on injured reserve continue to earn their yearly salaries, even if they don’t end up being their respective team’s “return from injury” player (who, this year, does not have to be designated as such at the outset of his injury).

The other is via dead money, or guaranteed money that remained on the contract of a released player. Though these players don’t get paid the amount still outstanding on their deals, the money still counts against their former teams’ salary caps. Sometimes, this money can stretch beyond the current year. For example, the Pittsburgh Steelers cut running back Dri Archer last November, but still have $253,008 in cap space dedicated to his dead money this year.

Needless to say, dead money hurts teams more than cap space dedicated to injured players, given that the injured players would, presumably, be on the field if healthy. But the greatest ability in the NFL is, as the cliche goes, availability. Money spent on players unavailable, for whatever reason, is never a goal — even though it is part of the business.

The New Orleans Saints lead the league in dead money this year, just as they did in 2015. The Saints have had salary cap troubles for years, which has led them to offloading contracts in order to save cap space. The flip side, though, is that while these roster cuts do save them more cash than had they retained the players, the dead money is still not a negligible amount.

The Saints have a whopping 38 players with dead-money charges this year, including $12.1 million for linebacker Junior Galette. Their dead money total for the season is $37,885,635. On top of that, 14 players are currently on the Saints’ injured reserve list, a cap hit that as of now totals $8,261,351 and is almost guaranteed to change — and to rise — as the season wears on.


Examining dead money and injured reserve spending at NFL

NFL Salary cap $155.27 million
dead money $37,885,635 :brood:
Or 24.4% of the cap is no where to be found

IR money $8,261,351:(
Wahhoo that puts us over 25% at 29.7% of the cap not able to play for the saints

Now that is a lot of cheddar :bugeyes:.

Keep it up and I have to ask if the saints will set a record for the first team in NFL history to achieve the 1/3 threshold of cap money not playing for any given season. :p

So yes I am still actually surprised the saints are doing as well as they are. 2017 ... 2017 ... 2017 ... 2017 :bng:

Re: Examining dead money and injured reserve spending at NFL’s quarter-season mark
 

If only drew wouldn't earn so much

Re: Examining dead money and injured reserve spending at NFL’s quarter-season mark
 

In the last two years, the Saints FO will have carried over 75M in dead money.

Wow.

Re: Examining dead money and injured reserve spending at NFL’s quarter-season mark
 

SMH...

If this market were a NY, CHI, WAS or LA - the front office would have been bounced for this and their two for one common draft practice...

Well, ONCE we're clear of this latest hurdle, maybe the Mickster and Coach will finally learn from their follies and put checks in place to avoid these decisions...

The injuries command some understanding (though when you've got outbreak, you fire the trainer and reset); but some of these FA contracts are indefensible...

Re: Examining dead money and injured reserve spending at NFL’s quarter-season mark
 

Pretty soon they will let the first 22 people at the games dress in uniform for the games and tickets upgraded from seats to playing time. Just to keep us under the cap.

Re: Examining dead money and injured reserve spending at NFL’s quarter-season mark
 

Well I remember saying we couldn't afford to spend what cap we had this season on any FAs. I was right but on the wrong reasons. We decided to use it on dead money.

Re: Examining dead money and injured reserve spending at NFL’s quarter-season mark
 

I hope these guys are more responsible with their own money. That kind of irresponsible and wasteful spending is what lands people on the street.

Fortunately for them, they are wasting a billionaire's money. That would seem harmless enough if there weren't such a thing as a salary cap.

Re: Examining dead money and injured reserve spending at NFL’s quarter-season mark
 

For the production, or lack thereof, Jordan's contract is bad as well.

Re: Examining dead money and injured reserve spending at NFL’s quarter-season mark
 

What's really surprising is the dead money hasn't killed Benson.

https://cdn.meme.am/instances/400x/54334239.jpg

Re: Examining dead money and injured reserve spending at NFL’s quarter-season mark
 

I (for now) choose to believe in the purge.
We should be much better off cap wise next year.
If the current braintrust doubles down on stupid?
I will be on board with purging Loomis.
We are here now, so I say let's let it play out and see what happens next off season.
Thanks for the write-up Hagan.
SUNSHINE!