The Tampa Bay Buccaneers qualified for the NFL playoffs as the NFC South champion and are pursuing their second Super Bowl title. But they already own one title from the current NFL season — and they have their former quarterback to thank for it.
Meet the 2023-24 champions of “dead money.”
The Tampa Bay Buccaneers lead the NFL with a whopping $81.57 million in dead money, which is a salary cap charge for a player no longer on the team’s roster.
Dead money typically represents money that a player has already been paid, but it hasn’t been accounted for on the salary cap until now.
The Tampa Bay Buccaneers still taking a cap hit of $35.1M for Tom Brady, even though he retired after last season. It’s the second-highest “dead money” cap hit for any player, retired or active. Following are the top 10 teams in terms of dead money counting against their salary cap.
- Tampa Bay Buccaneers — $81.6M
- Los Angeles Rams — $78.5M
- Arizona Cardinals — $69.8M
- Green Bay Packers — $67.2M
- Philadelphia Eagles — $63.8M
- Carolina Panthers — $62.2
- Tennessee Titans — $58.8M
- Las Vegas Raiders — $57.8M
- New York Giants — $56.4M
- Indianapolis Colts — $50.3M
Source: Spotrac
One rather unusual development is that four of the top five dead money teams — the Bucs, Rams, Packers and Eagles -are heading to the NFL playoffs.
Related: NFL’s highest-paid players in 2023-24 season
Aaron Rodgers is the dead money king
From an individual player standpoint, the largest cap hit of all belongs to Aaron Rodgers, the New York Jets quarterback who accounts for $40.3M of dead money toward the cap for the Green Bay Packers.
In addition to Rodgers and Brady, here the other players who make the top 10 “dead money” list, according to Spotrac.
| PLAYER/POS. | FORMER TEAM | CURRENT TEAM | CAP HIT |
| 1. Aaron Rodgers/QB | Green Bay Packers | New York Jets | $40.3M |
| 2. Tom Brady/QB | Tampa Bay Buccaneers | Retired | $35.1M |
| 3. Brandin Cooks/WR | Houston Texans | Dallas Cowboys | $22.2M |
| 4. Allen Robinson/WR | Los Angeles Rams | Pittsburgh Steelers | $21.5M |
| 5. DeAndre Hopkins/WR | Arizona Cardinals | Tennessee Titans | $21.1M |
| 6. Grady Jarrett/DE | Atlanta Falcons | Atlanta Falcons | $20.6M |
| 7. Shaq Leonard/LB | Indianapolis Colts | Philadelphia Eagles | $20.0M |
| 8. Jalen Ramsey/CB | Los Angeles Rams | Miami Dolphins | $19.6M |
| 9. Leonard Floyd/LB | Los Angeles Rams | Buffalo Bills | $19.0M |
| 10. Christian McCaffrey/RB | Carolina Panthers | San Francisco 49ers | $18.4M |
The only player still playing for his current team is Jarrett.