In cutting Russell Wilson in March 2024, the Denver Broncos moved on from Wilson just two years after acquiring the veteran quarterback in a blockbuster trade with the Seattle Seahawks. The release triggered the biggest dead cap hit in NFL history.
Here are the 10 biggest dead cap hits in NFL history:
10. Jared Goff – Rams
Dead Money: $22.2 million
The Rams took a dead cap hit of more than $22 million when dealing Jared Goff and his four-year, $134-million deal to the Detroit Lions.
After exercising Goff’s fifth-year option earlier in the league year, the Rams signed Goff to the mega-deal in 2019 that included $110 million in guarantees. It was the most guaranteed money in NFL history and made him one of the 15 highest-paid athletes in the world for 2020.
9. DeAndre Hopkins – Cardinals
Dead Money: $22.6 million
In September 2020, six months after his trade from the Houston Texans, DeAndre Hopkins signed a two-year extension with the Cardinals worth $54.5 million. His contract was set to run through 2024.
Hopkins and the Cardinals didn’t reach those two extension years. He was released after just three seasons, which triggered a $22.6-million dead cap hit for 2023.
8. Julio Jones – Falcons
Dead Money: $23.25 million
By waiting until after June 1, 2021, to trade Julio Jones, the Atlanta Falcons spread out his dead money over 2021 and 2022. But that didn’t change the figure itself.
Jones signed a three-year, $66-million contract extension in 2019 that kept him under team control through 2023 since he had two years remaining on an existing deal. He played only 24 more games with the Falcons before the trade to Tennessee on June 6, 2021, which left the Falcons with a dead cap of $7.75 million in 2021 and $15.5 million in 2022.
7. Russell Wilson
Dead Money: $26 million
The Seattle Seahawks trimmed $11 million off their 2022 payroll by trading Russell Wilson to the Denver Broncos but still took a dead-cap hit of $26 million in 2022.
The hit is a result of a four-year, $140-million deal – at the time the highest average annual value for any player in the NFL – signed after the 2019 season. It included $107 million in guarantees, which ultimately led to the dead money three years later.
6. Stefon Diggs
Dead Money: $31 million
In the 2024 offseason, the Buffalo Bills traded Diggs to the Houston Texans in exchange for draft picks. By executing the transaction after his 2024 salary kicked in, the Bills took on $31 million in dead cap.
It’s the qualifies as the biggest cap hit for a non-quarterbacK.
5. Carson Wentz
Dead Money: $33.8 million
Included in the four-year, $128-million deal Carson Wentz signed with the Philadelphia Eagles in June 2019 was a signing bonus to be paid before the deal began in 2021 but spread over the four years, 2021-24, to lower his cap hit in each year.
It cost the Eagles nearly 20 percent of their salary cap in 2021.
4. Aaron Rodgers
Dead Money: $40.313 million
From the moment Rodgers signed a new deal before in March 2022, it seemed possible the Packers would incur a dead cap hit at some point during the three-year, $150-million deal.
All of Rodgers’ dead cap hit came in 2023, accounting for approximately 18% of the Packers’ salary cap.
3. Matt Ryan
Dead Money: $40.53 million
Matt Ryan’s contract was restructured several times over the last three years of his career – including a restructuring just two weeks before his trade to the Colts – that it hardly resembles the original five-year, $150-million deal signed in 2018.
In ending the Ryan era after 14 seasons, the Falcons ate (at the time) the biggest dead-cap hit in NFL history, all of which was on the books for 2022.
2. Kirk Cousins
Dead Money: $65 million
The Atlanta Falcons are expected to cut Kirk Cousins before his $10 million roster bonus (for 2026) is due in March, Adam Schefter reported on Dec. 21.
If that happens, the Falcons will have $65 million in dead money remaining, the second-biggest amount in NFL history.
1. Russell Wilson
Dead Money: $85 million
After acquiring Russell Wilson from the Seattle Seahawks in March 2022, the Denver Broncos signed their new quarterback — who had two years remaining on his previous deal — to a five-year extension worth $245 million.
Wilson didn’t play a single snap under the five-year extension. He has two of the seven biggest dead cap hits in NFL history.
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