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PFR Glossary: Supplemental Draft

July 14th, 2017 at 3:47pm CST by Zachary Links

If you weren’t paying close attention, you might have missed this year’s supplemental draft entirely. That’s because all 32 NFL teams passed up the opportunity to select either of the two players who were eligible. Although this year’s draft lacked excitement, we’ve been getting lots of requests from readers in recent days to break down the supplemental draft and explain how it works. Josh Gordon

The supplemental draft allows NFL teams to select players who, for one reason or another, were barred from entering the regular draft in the spring. When a team selects a player in the supplemental draft, they forfeit the corresponding pick in the regular draft next year. For example, if a team selected a player in the sixth round of the supplemental draft this year, they would have had to give up their 2018 sixth round selection.

The 2017 draft marked the second consecutive year in which there were no players chosen in the supplemental draft. No one came off of the board in 2016 either, and that was a bit of a surprise since Purdue defensive tackle Ra’Zahn Howard was up for grabs. Howard wound up signing with the Texans after the draft ended (he even received a signing bonus), but he was dropped before the team dropped down to a 75-man roster.

Of course, that’s not to say that the supplemental draft is a pointless exercise. In 2015, the Rams selected Clemson offensive tackle Isaiah Battle with a fifth-round choice. The 6’6″ tackle has yet to break out, but he did spend time on the Rams’ 53-man roster and practice squad. Currently, he is on the Chiefs’ 90-man roster and looking to make the final cut.

In the past, teams have found some gems in the supplemental draft. In 2011, the Raiders selected Ohio State quarterback and future standout NFL receiver Terrelle Pryor. In 2012, the Browns used a second round pick to take the talented and troubled Josh Gordon. Other supplemental draft alums include quarterback Bernie Kosar (Browns, 1985), wide receiver Cris Carter (Eagles, 1987), running back Bobby Humphrey (Broncos, 1989), wide receiver Rob Moore (Jets, 1990), nose tackle Jamal Williams (Chargers, 1998), and linebacker Ahmad Brooks (Bengals, 2006).

There wasn’t much to see in these last two supplemental drafts, but next year’s iteration could give way to future NFL stars.

Note: This is a PFR Glossary entry. Our glossary posts explain specific rules relating to free agency, trades, or other aspects of the NFL’s Collective Bargaining Agreement. 

Offset Language

July 4th, 2017 at 10:26am CST by Zachary Links

Since the NFL’s latest Collective Bargaining Agreement has made rookie contracts fairly regimented, negotiations between teams and draft picks have become smoother than ever, with few – if any – players expected to be unsigned by the time training camp gets underway. Still, ten players have yet to ink their rookie deals, including several first-rounders:

Although we don’t know the inner workings of each negotiation, one factor that continues to play a role in contracts for first-round picks relates to offset language. Over the last several years, only a handful of players in each year have managed to avoid having offsets language written into their deals. In 2015, Marcus Mariota‘s camp haggled with the Titans until the two sides finally reached an accord with partial offset language, a compromise that was not consummated until late July. Last year, Joey Bosa’s holdout dominated headlines until the linebacker inked his deal on August 29th. In most cases, a lack of offsets for a player simply relies on which team drafted him — clubs like the Rams and Jaguars traditionally haven’t pushed to include offsets in contracts for their top picks, even in an era where most other teams around the league do.

Offset language relates to what happens to a player’s salary if he’s cut during the first four years of his career, while he’s still playing on his rookie contract. For the top 15 to 20 picks in the draft, those four-year salaries will be fully guaranteed, even if a player is waived at some point during those four seasons. For example, if a player has $4MM in guaranteed money remaining on his contract and is cut, he’ll still be owed that $4MM.

However, if a team has written offset language into the contract, that club can save some money if and when the player signs with a new team. For example, if that player who had $4MM in guaranteed money left on his contract signs with a new club on a $1MM deal, his old team would only be on the hook for $3MM, with the new team making up the difference. If there’s no offset language on that first deal, the old team would continue to be on the hook for the full $4MM, and the player would simply earn an additional $1MM from his new club.

Although the negotiation of offset language might potentially delay a rookie’s signing, the offsets rarely come into play, since few top picks flame out badly enough that they’re released during their first four seasons. And even in those rare instances, if a player has performed poorly enough to be cut in his first few years, he likely won’t sign a lucrative deal elsewhere, so offset language wouldn’t help his old club recover more than perhaps the league minimum.

Note: This is a PFR Glossary entry, modified from an earlier post by PFR editor emeritus Luke Adams. Our glossary posts will explain specific rules relating to free agency, trades, or other aspects of the NFL’s Collective Bargaining Agreement. Information from OverTheCap.com was used in the creation of this post. 

PFR Glossary: Injured Reserve

September 16th, 2016 at 9:29am CST by Zachary Links

As has been the case throughout the preseason and season so far, we saw several key players moved to teams’ injured reserve lists this week. Chargers wide receiver Keenan Allen, Vikings quarterback Teddy Bridgewater, and Browns QB Robert Griffin III are among the players who landed on the IR recently, opening up a spot on their clubs’ active rosters for their teams to replace them. Keenan Allen (Vertical)

The injured reserve designation is generally – though not always – used for players who will be out for the season. That’s not the case for every player who lands on injured reserve though. Particularly during the preseason, we see players who weren’t part of their teams’ long-term plans hit the IR list, only to be cut several days later. Generally, these cases involve players who aren’t suffering from season-ending injuries, and receive injury settlements from their respective clubs in order to release those clubs from any liability.

For instance, let’s say a player is injured during the final week of the preseason with a high ankle sprain, and the player and team both agree that the injury will sideline him for three weeks. The club could place that player on injured reserve, then cut him with a two-week regular-season injury settlement (since the final preseason week is also taken into account). That would allow the player to receive 2/17ths of his season salary, and allow him to look for work with a new club when he gets healthy. If the club were to keep the player on injured reserve rather than removing him with a settlement, it would be required to cut him when he gets healthy.

Teams who release a player from IR with a settlement are eligible to re-sign that player later in the season, if they so choose. But they must wait three weeks, on top of the time of the initial settlement. In that previous example then, a club would have to wait until after Week 8 to re-sign the player with the high ankle sprain.

Players who remain on their clubs’ injured reserve lists all season continue to receive their full salary, which also counts against their teams’ salary caps. The Browns, for example, have tons of traditional dead money on the books thanks to the contracts of Dwayne Bowe, Barkevious Mingo, Donte Whitner, Johnny Manziel, and others. But, they’re also effectively carrying dead money for Griffin, who carries a $5MM+ cap number for the 2016 season.

In some instances, players agree to “split contracts” when they sign with a club, which means that the player will receive a smaller salary if he lands on injured reserve. Split contracts, which are worth less than the active roster minimum salaries, are fairly rare, and are primarily signed by undrafted rookies or veterans with injury histories.

One additional quirk related to the injured reserve list is the option each team has to bring one player back from the IR list. Previously, the rule stipulated that a team had to designate one specific player for return later on in the season. Thanks to a rule change proposed by the Bills this offseason, however, the IR-DTR spot is no more. Instead, a team can bring any player back from IR, though that player must be on IR for a minimum of six weeks before practicing and can return to game action after a total of eight weeks. Once a team uses this designation once, it can’t use it again that season.

Note: This is a PFR Glossary entry, modified from an earlier post by PFR editor emeritus Luke Adams. Our glossary posts explain specific rules relating to free agency, trades, or other aspects of the NFL’s Collective Bargaining Agreement. Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images.

Offset Language

June 23rd, 2016 at 9:04am CST by Zachary Links

Since the NFL’s latest Collective Bargaining Agreement has made rookie contracts fairly regimented, negotiations between teams and draft picks have become smoother than ever, with few – if any – players expected to be unsigned by the time training camp gets underway. Still, eleven players have yet to ink their rookie deals, including four first-rounders: Joey Bosa (Chargers, No. 3), Darron Lee (Jets, No. 20), Will Fuller (Texans, No. 21), and Joshua Garnett (49ers, No. 28). Will Fuller (vertical)

Although we don’t know for sure what the holdup is with those four players, one factor that continues to play a role in contracts for first-round picks relates to offset language. Over the last several years, only a handful of players in each year have managed to avoid having offsets language written into their deals. Last year, Marcus Mariota‘s camp haggled with the Titans until the two sides finally reached an accord with partial offset language, a compromise that was not consummated until late July. In most cases, a lack of offsets for a player simply relies on which team drafted him — clubs like the Rams and Jaguars traditionally haven’t pushed to include offsets in contracts for their top picks, even in an era where most other teams around the league do.

Offset language relates to what happens to a player’s salary if he’s cut during the first four years of his career, while he’s still playing on his rookie contract. For the top 15 to 20 picks in the draft, those four-year salaries will be fully guaranteed, even if a player is waived at some point during those four seasons. For example, if a player has $4MM in guaranteed money remaining on his contract and is cut, he’ll still be owed that $4MM.

However, if a team has written offset language into the contract, that club can save some money if and when the player signs with a new team. For example, if that player who had $4MM in guaranteed money left on his contract signs with a new club on a $1MM deal, his old team would only be on the hook for $3MM, with the new team making up the difference. If there’s no offset language on that first deal, the old team would continue to be on the hook for the full $4MM, and the player would simply earn an additional $1MM from his new club.

Although the negotiation of offset language might potentially delay a rookie’s signing, the offsets rarely come into play, since few top picks flame out badly enough that they’re released during their first four seasons. And even in those rare instances, if a player has performed poorly enough to be cut in his first few years, he likely won’t sign a lucrative deal elsewhere, so offset language wouldn’t help his old club recover more than perhaps the league minimum.

Note: This is a PFR Glossary entry, modified from an earlier post by PFR editor emeritus Luke Adams. Our glossary posts will explain specific rules relating to free agency, trades, or other aspects of the NFL’s Collective Bargaining Agreement. Information from OverTheCap.com was used in the creation of this post. Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images.

Post-June 1 Cuts

June 2nd, 2015 at 9:31am CST by Luke Adams

As we covered in our contract bonuses entry in the Pro Football Rumors glossary, including bonuses in NFL contracts is a good way to spread out a cap hit that might otherwise be exorbitant. For instance, if a player’s five-year deal includes a $10MM signing bonus, that money can be paid immediately but spread out over five years for cap purposes. So the cap charge for the bonus would be $2MM per year, rather than $10MM in year one.

This practice can come back to haunt teams if they want to get out of a contract early, however. Suppose the team in the above scenario wanted to release the player in the third year of his contract. Even if none of the player’s base salary is guaranteed at that point, the team will still have to account for that remaining prorated bonus money. Rather than counting on the cap as $2MM per year for three seasons, that dead money “accelerates,” and applies to the cap for the league year in which the player is released. In other words, the remaining $6MM in prorated bonus money immediately counts against the club’s cap.

Although these rules apply to many cuts, a different set of rules is in place for players released after June 1. In that case, a team can spread the cap hit across two seasons rather than one — for the current season, the prorated bonus figure stays at its original amount, with the remaining bonus balance accelerating onto the following season. Referring again to the above scenario, that means the player would count against the cap for $2MM in the league year in which he was cut, with the remaining $4MM applying to the following league year.

The guidelines for pre-June 1 and post-June 1 cuts are fairly straightforward, but things become a little more complicated when we take into account that teams are allowed to designate up to two players as post-June 1 cuts even if those players are released before June. This offseason, only two players were designated as post-June 1 cuts — Philip Wheeler, by the Dolphins, and DeAngelo Williams, by the Panthers.

So how exactly does this scenario work? Let’s look at Wheeler’s contract for an example. Before he was cut, the remaining years on the linebacker’s contract looked like this:

Wheeler 1

Typically, releasing Wheeler prior to June 1 would accelerate all that prorated bonus money to the 2015 cap. His base salaries and workout bonuses don’t feature any guarantees, so that would’ve looked like this:

Wheeler 2

That approach would’ve ensured that Wheeler’s contract came off the Dolphins’ books faster, but it would’ve barely created any cap space — the linebacker’s cap hit for 2015 would’ve only dipped by $200K, from $4.4MM to $4.2MM. By designating him as a post-June 1 cut, the Dolphins ensured that they’d create more cap space for 2015 by moving some of the dead money to 2016.

Of course, Miami didn’t actually get that cap space until this week, since designating a player as a post-June 1 cut means he’ll come off the books after June 1, rather than immediately. Here’s what Wheeler’s contract looks like now on the Dolphins’ books:

Wheeler 3

Because the cap charge for the current league year isn’t reduced until June, designating a player as a post-June 1 cut isn’t hugely advantageous for teams. By June, just about every notable free agent is off the board, so the new savings likely won’t be put toward a major move.

Still, releasing a player in March and designating him a post-June 1 cut can be mutually beneficial for a player and his team. It allows the player to hit the market when potential suitors still have cap room and are still looking to add free agents, and it allows the club to spread out the player’s cap charge without having to actually wait until June 1 to release him — waiting until that point could mean paying roster or workout bonuses in the interim. Additionally, even if the team doesn’t need that June cap space for free agency, it can come in handy for signing draft picks.

The 2015 period for designating a player as a post-June 1 cut has ended — every player released now will be, by definition, a post-June 1 cut, meaning any dead money will be spread across the 2015 and 2016 league years. As Jason Fitzgerald of Over The Cap notes in his piece on the subject, this was a bigger deal in past seasons, when teams were right up against the cap and badly needed to create space. These days, clubs are doing a much better job of managing their respective caps, and no teams are in bad enough shape that they were counting down the days on their calendars until June 1.

A couple loose ends related to post-June 1 cuts:

  • The same rules applying to players who are released apply to players who are traded — if a team trades a player after June 1, his remaining bonus money can be spread out over two seasons. However, a club can’t designate anyone traded prior to June as a post-June 1 player.
  • Teams cannot designate post-June 1 cuts during the final league year of the Collective Bargaining Agreement.

Note: This is a PFR Glossary entry. Our glossary posts will explain specific rules relating to free agency, trades, or other aspects of the NFL’s Collective Bargaining Agreement. Information from Over the Cap was used in the creation of this post. The original version of this post was published on April 2, 2014.

Injured Reserve

September 26th, 2014 at 8:57am CST by Luke Adams

As has been the case throughout the preseason and season so far, we saw several key players moved to teams’ injured reserve lists this week. Vikings quarterback Matt Cassel, Chargers running back Danny Woodhead, and Lions linebacker Stephen Tulloch are among the players who headed to the IR within the last several days, opening up a spot on their clubs’ active rosters for their teams to replace them.

The injured reserve designation is generally – though not always – used for players who will be out for the season. That’s especially the case with players like Woodhead, whose team will want to keep him around beyond this year. Woodhead signed a two-year contract extension with San Diego in July, so there’s little chance the club moves forward in 2015 without him in the mix. That means Woodhead will spent this season on IR, earning his full salary, and will plan on returning to the Chargers’ active roster next year.

That’s not the case for every player who lands on injured reserve though. Particularly during the preseason, we see players who weren’t part of their teams’ long-term plans hit the IR list, only to be cut several days later. Generally, these cases involve players who aren’t suffering from season-ending injuries, and receive injury settlements from their respective clubs in order to release those clubs from any liability.

For instance, let’s say a player is injured during the final week of the preseason with a high ankle sprain, and the player and team both agree that the injury will sideline him for three weeks. The club could place that player on injured reserve, then cut him with a two-week regular-season injury settlement (since the final preseason week is also taken into account). That would allow the player to receive 2/17ths of his season salary, and allow him to look for work with a new club when he gets healthy. If the club were to keep the player on injured reserve rather than removing him with a settlement, it would be required to cut him when he gets healthy.

Teams who release a player from IR with a settlement are eligible to re-sign that player later in the season, if they so choose. But they must wait six weeks, on top of the time of the initial settlement. In that previous example then, a club would have to wait until after Week 8 to re-sign the player with the high ankle sprain.

Players who remain on their clubs’ injured reserve lists all season continue to receive their full salary, which also counts against their teams’ salary caps. The Rams are one club that has an inordinate amount of what is essentially “dead money” sitting on injured reserve this season, since highly-paid quarterback Sam Bradford landed on the IR before the season begin.

In some instances, players agree to “split contracts” when they sign with a club, which means that the player will receive a smaller salary if he lands on injured reserve. Split contracts, which are worth less than the active roster minimum salaries, are fairly rare, and are primarily signed by undrafted rookies or veterans with injury histories.

One additional quirk related to the injured reserve list is the option each team has to designate one IR player to return each season. With the IR-DTR spot, a club can place a player on IR, but bring him back to practice after six weeks, and back to game action after eight weeks. Once a team uses this designation once, it can’t use it again that season, though not every club necessarily gets the opportunity to make use of it. Here’s our list of how teams have used the IR-DTR slot so far this season.

Note: This is a PFR Glossary entry. Our glossary posts will explain specific rules relating to free agency, trades, or other aspects of the NFL’s Collective Bargaining Agreement. Information from The National Football Post was used in the creation of this post.

Vested Veteran Salary Guarantees

September 6th, 2014 at 10:00pm CST by Luke Adams

A handful of veteran players were cut from their teams’ respective rosters today, and while different clubs have different reasons for shuffling their rosters, the looming vested veteran guarantee may have played a part in many of those moves. A vested veteran, or a player with at least four years of NFL experience, will have his 2014 base salary guaranteed for the year if he’s on an NFL team’s roster for the first game of the season.

That means that if a team decided after Week 1 to part ways with a veteran player with a 2014 base salary of $1MM, the team would still be on the hook for that full $1MM, which would count against the cap. A veteran who has received this form of termination pay in the past wouldn’t be eligible to receive it again, but otherwise the player can put in a claim for his full salary and receive it. Veterans not a Week 1 roster don’t benefit from that provision, however.

If a player is signed during the season, following a team’s first game, and is later released, he’s only entitled to 25% of his full-season salary. For instance, let’s say a team signed a player in Week 2 for a full-year salary of $1.02MM. First, that salary would be prorated for 16 weeks, meaning it’d be worth $960K. If a player is cut shortly after signing, he’d receive 25% of that amount, or $240K. If the player is released within four weeks of signing, he’d only count for $240K against his team’s cap, rather than the amount of his full salary.

As such, we could see veteran players who were released by teams within the last few days re-sign with those clubs next week, when their full-season salaries will no longer be guaranteed and teams can retain maximum roster flexibility.

Note: This is a PFR Glossary entry. Our glossary posts will explain specific rules relating to free agency, trades, or other aspects of the NFL’s Collective Bargaining Agreement. Information from Over The Cap was used in the creation of this post.

Practice Squads

August 22nd, 2014 at 11:24am CST by Luke Adams

In addition to the 53-man rosters each NFL team will carry into the regular season following this month’s cutdown dates, each club will have a practice squad made up of 10 more players. In past seasons, practice squads have been limited to eight players, but the league announced earlier this week that the squads would be expanded to 10 for 2014 and 2015.

Those practice squads will be created in a little over a week. On Sunday, August 31, the claiming period for players waived during final roster cutdowns will end at 11:00am central time, and at that point, teams are free to start signing players to their practice squads.

While practice squad players aren’t eligible to play in regular season games, they practice with their team’s active players during the week, and receive a weekly salary. For the 2014 season, the minimum weekly salary for practice squad players is $6,300, though teams are permitted to offer more than that in an attempt to entice players to sign to their squad rather than join another club.

Practice squad players are under contract, but the fact that they’re not on an active roster means they’re free to sign with another NFL team if the opportunity arises. That new team must add the player to its 53-man active roster, however, and the player will then receive at least three weeks of active-roster salary, even if he’s waived before spending three weeks with the team. If a team signs a player off another club’s practice squad to its active roster and cuts him within three weeks, the team is not allowed to replace that player on its active roster until the three-week period is up. However, if the player clears waivers, he can be added to the team’s practice squad as an extra man until the three-week period expires.

A team cannot sign a player to its practice squad from another team’s practice squad — to go from one practice squad to another, the player must first be cut and clear waivers. Additionally, a team can’t sign a player off another club’s practice squad if the two teams are playing each other next, unless the move occurs at least six days before the game (or 10 days before, if the old club is currently on a bye).

Teams are permitted to elevate practice squad players to their active rosters, but the club must be willing to pay the player at least three weeks’ worth of the minimum salary, and the player would have to clear waivers before being placed back on the practice squad.

There are a number of rules related to eligibility for practice squad players. The squads are generally designed as developmental tools for a club to keep young players around to learn its system, so a team wouldn’t be able to sign a veteran free agent like Asante Samuel to its practice squad. Here are the guidelines for determining whether a player is eligible to be signed to a practice squad:

  • A player without an accrued season of NFL experience is eligible for practice squads. An accrued season is defined as having spent at least six games on a team’s active roster, PUP list, or injured reserve list.
  • A player with one accrued season can still be eligible for practice squads if he was on his team’s active 46-man roster for fewer than nine games.
  • A player can serve up to two years on a practice squad, and is eligible for a third only if his team is carrying a full 53-man roster at all times. A player is considered to have spent a full year on a practice squad if he was on the squad for at least three games.

While the above bullets represent the usual criteria for practice squad eligibility, the changes the NFL announced this week also included some alterations to eligibility that will apply to the 2014 and 2015 seasons. Those changes are as follows:

  • A player is now considered to have spent a full year on a practice squad if he was on the squad for at least six games, rather than three.
  • Each team is allowed to sign a maximum of two players who have up to two accrued seasons of NFL experience. The usual rules for accrued seasons will apply to the other eight players on the practice squad.

Assuming each of the NFL’s 32 teams carry full practice squads into the regular season, a total of 320 players will be signed to these squads following roster cutdowns next weekend. In most cases, a team’s practice squad will simply be made up of players who have spent training camp and preseason with that club and didn’t make the 53-man roster. However, there may be some instances of teams poaching other clubs’ players. The expanded rosters and altered eligibility guidelines for this season should make things a little interesting as we follow how NFL clubs decide to fill up their practice squads for 2014.

Note: This is a PFR Glossary entry. Our glossary posts will explain specific rules relating to free agency, trades, or other aspects of the NFL’s Collective Bargaining Agreement. Information from Russell Street Report and SBNation.com was used in the creation of this post.

Waivers

July 11th, 2014 at 10:37am CST by Luke Adams

Over the last several months at Pro Football Rumors, we’ve published dozens of stories on players being cut, waived, or released by their NFL teams. While these terms are often used interchangeably, they’re not quite synonymous. A player who is “cut” has been removed from his team’s roster, but whether he is “waived” or “released” generally depends on his NFL experience.

Between the day after the Super Bowl and the following season’s trade deadline, players with less than four years of service time – or “accrued seasons” – have to pass through waivers after they’re cut by an NFL team. The other 31 clubs around the league have a day to place a waiver claim on that player, adding him to their roster and taking on his contract. That’s why we refer to these players as having been waived, rather than released.

If a player with more than four years of service time is cut between the Super Bowl and the trade deadline, he is not subjected to the waiver process, meaning he becomes a free agent immediately, able to sign with a new team right away if he so chooses.

This isn’t the case all year round, however. Once the trade deadline passes, any player who is cut by his team must pass through waivers, regardless of how many accrued seasons are on his résumé. So if a team cuts loose a 12-year veteran in Week 10 of the coming season, that player must pass through waivers unclaimed before he’d be free to sign with a team of his choice.

Here are a few more details on the waiver process:

  • If two teams place a waiver claim on the same player, he is awarded to the team with the higher priority. Waiver priority is determined by the previous season’s standings — this year, for example, the Texans have first dibs, while the Super Bowl champion Seahawks have 32nd priority.
  • The window to claim a player closes at the end of the NFL’s business day, which is at 3:00pm central. So if a player is waived by one team on Monday, the other 31 clubs have until Tuesday afternoon to submit a claim. Players cut on Friday clear waivers (or are awarded to a new team) on the following Monday.
  • Prior to the first cutdown date in training camp, injured players with fewer than four years of service time cannot be placed on injured reserve until they pass through waivers. Teams will cut this sort of player with a waived-injured designation, allowing other teams to place a claim if they so choose. If the player goes unclaimed, his team can place him on IR or agree to an injury settlement, then fully release him from the roster.

Note: This is a PFR Glossary entry. Our glossary posts will explain specific rules relating to free agency, trades, or other aspects of the NFL’s Collective Bargaining Agreement. Information from Russell Street Report and SBNation.com was used in the creation of this post.

Dead Money

June 28th, 2014 at 9:15pm CST by Luke Adams

In our most recent PFR Glossary entry, we explored the different kinds of guaranteed money found in NFL contracts, concluding that the only figures in a contract can be considered fully guaranteed are signing bonuses and salary that is guaranteed for injury, skill, and cap purposes. This fully guaranteed portion of a contract is also known as dead money, from a club’s perspective — it will hit the player’s team’s cap sooner or later, whether he plays out his full contract or whether he gets released early in the deal.

Because signing bonuses are prorated, teams signing bigger contracts that include bonuses typically can spread out that guaranteed money over several years. However, if a team releases a player while it still owes him some or all of this guaranteed money, it “accelerates” onto either the current league year (if the player is released prior to June 1) or the following year (if the player is released after June 1), and applies to the team’s cap even when the player is no longer on the roster. This is what makes it “dead” money.

Let’s take a look at a free agent who signed a new contract this offseason for a practical example. As our Zach Links covered in his Offseason in Review piece on the Browns earlier this week, linebacker Karlos Dansby inked a four-year, $24MM pact with the team — the agreement included a $6MM signing bonus and $6MM in guaranteed base salary ($4MM in 2014 and $2MM of his $4MM salary in 2015). Therefore, the contract currently contains $12MM in dead money – $5.5MM in ’14, $3.5MM in ’15, and $1.5MM each in ’16 and ’17.

When the dead money left on a player’s contract is greater than his current year cap hit, he’s in little danger of being released. Dansby has a $5.5MM cap number in 2014, compared to $12MM in total dead money, meaning even if the Browns had reason to want to cut him (which is unlikely, considering it’s only been a few months since they made that offer), it would make little sense to do so. Under the post-June 1 rule, if Dansby were released now, his $12MM in dead money would hit the cap for a total of $5.5MM this year and $6.5MM in 2015, with the remaining dead money accelerating on that season’s cap. That means Cleveland would be taking larger overall cap hits to get him off the roster than to keep him on it.

In some instances, even a huge amount of dead money isn’t enough reason for a team to keep a player on its roster. For instance, LaMarr Woodley headed into 2014 with a cap number of $13.59MM and $14.71MM in dead money remaining on his contract. By designating him as a post-June 1 cut, the Steelers were able to reduce Woodley’s ’14 cap hit to just $5.59MM, while his ’15 cap hit decreased from $14.09MM to $8.58MM.

Of course, in that scenario, a 2015 cap number of $8.58MM is still exorbitant for a player who won’t be on the team’s roster, which is why clubs who manage the cap the best generally try to keep dead money for non-roster players to a minimum. There are ways of constructing deals to avoid piling up dead money charges, including avoiding large signing bonuses. Darrelle Revis‘ six-year, $96MM pact with the Buccaneers looked massive on paper, but it featured yearly $16MM salaries, with no bonus, meaning the deal didn’t include any guaranteed money. So when Tampa Bay cut the star cornerback earlier this year, the team wasn’t on the hook for any salary, and Revis doesn’t count against the club’s cap at all in 2014.

NFL players often don’t have a ton of job security, but if a player has a sizable amount of dead money left on his contract, it gives him more leverage than he’d otherwise have. If you’re wondering if a veteran player on your favorite team might be a candidate to be cut, it’s worth checking a salary database like Over the Cap or Spotrac to see how much dead money is remaining on his deal. The higher that number is, the less likely the player is to go anywhere in the near future.

Note: This is a PFR Glossary entry. Our glossary posts will explain specific rules relating to free agency, trades, or other aspects of the NFL’s Collective Bargaining Agreement. Information from Over the Cap was used in the creation of this post.

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