Dallas Cowboys, Miami Dolphins among teams to get NFL salary cap relief

With the start of June approaching, a group of NFL teams are about to add some cap space. Even during the downtime of the NFL offseason, there are moves to be made.

In 2024, about one-third of the teams in the NFL released players with post-June 1 designations, meaning the player was cut in March but the salary cap implications were delayed until June 2. Until June 1, the players carry their existing cap number.

Thirteen NFL players were released earlier this offseason with a post-June 1 designation, and large chunks of their cap hits are about to shift into 2025.

The biggest name on the list for 2024 has the largest dead cap hit in NFL history. The Denver Broncos took on $85 million in dead cap space in order to release Russell Wilson this offseason. However, Denver won’t gain any cap space on June 2nd because his 2024 cap hit was $35.4 million and the Year 1 dead cap hit on the deal is also $35.4 million. The benefit of the move is they are able to spread the remaining $49.6 million in dead money to Year 2 in 2025.

Here are all the post-June 1 designations and how the dead cap will be calculated in the next two years:

• Arizona Cardinals: D.J. Humphries ($6.9 million in 2024, $6.9 million moved to 2025)
• Baltimore Ravens: Odell Beckham Jr. ($2.8 million in 2024, $8.3 million moved to 2025)
• Buffalo Bills: Tre’Davious White ($6.2 million in 2024, $4.1 million moved to 2025)
• Dallas Cowboys: Michael Gallup ($4.35 million in 2024, $8.7 million moved to 2025)
• Denver Broncos: Russell Wilson ($35.4 million in 2024, $49.6 million moved to 2025)
• Detroit Lions: Cameron Sutton ($2.2 million in 2024, $6.5 million moved to 2025)
• Green Bay Packers: De’Vondre Campbell ($3.6 million in 2024, $8 million moved to 2025)
• Las Vegas Raiders: Jimmy Garoppolo ($4.3 million in 2024, $12.8 million moved to 2025)
• Miami Dolphins: Xavien Howard ($7.4 million in 2024, $15.7 million moved to 2025)
• New Orleans Saints: Michael Thomas ($11.2 million in 2024, $9.2 million moved to 2025)
• New Orleans Saints: Jameis Winston ($3.4 million in 2024, $7.4 million moved to 2025)
• San Francisco 49ers: Arik Armstead ($10.6 million in 2024, $14.8 million moved to 2025)
• Tampa Bay Buccaneers: Shaq Barrett ($12.3 million in 2024, $17.4 million moved to 2025)

That second number is not how much cap space will be created for teams on June 2. Rather, it’s just how the dead money is going to be moved into the future.

For instance, Shaq Barrett was supposed to count $11.2 million on Tampa’s cap hit in 2024 and that’s what his number has been since the start of the league year. His cap charge will actually go up on June 2 to $12.3 million. If they hadn’t used post-June 1 designation, it would have gone all the way up to $26.7 million with the total dead cap hit.

Here is the amount of 2024 cap space created on June 2 from the transactions above:

• Arizona Cardinals: D.J. Humphries ($16 million)
• Baltimore Ravens: Odell Beckham Jr. ($1.2 million)
• Buffalo Bills: Tre’Davious White ($10.2 million)
• Dallas Cowboys: Michael Gallup ($9.5 million)
• Denver Broncos: Russell Wilson ($0)
• Detroit Lions: Cameron Sutton ($10.5 million)
• Green Bay Packers: De’Vondre Campbell ($10.6 million)
• Las Vegas Raiders: Jimmy Garoppolo ($24 million)
• Miami Dolphins: Xavien Howard ($18.5 million)
• New Orleans Saints: Michael Thomas ($1.2 million)
• New Orleans Saints: Jameis Winston ($1.2 million)
• San Francisco 49ers: Arik Armstead ($17.8 million)
• Tampa Bay Buccaneers: Shaq Barrett (-$1.2 million)

There are a few free agents who have been sitting on the sidelines of free agency waiting to see where they might get the best opportunity to play in 2024. Now that the major free agents are signed and the NFL Draft has come and gone, they can see which rosters have a genuine need for them. While some may still hold out for a training camp injury to open a spot, teams won’t have more cap space to spend for the rest of this offseason, so now is the time to agree for many of them.