Who Leads the Cardinals in Dead Cap Money for 2023?

It's been quite the offseason for the Arizona Cardinals, who are trying to kickstart their rebuild during a period of time where the organization constantly finds themselves in headlines for all the wrong reasons.

Sitting with just over $20 million in salary cap space, the Cardinals don't figure to do too much in the weeks leading up to the 2023 NFL Draft. Besides the incoming additions from the draft, Arizona's roster is mostly set.

What exactly is dead cap money?

Spotrac says, "Any future, unpaid, guaranteed salary or bonus or any already paid signing bonus that hasn't yet been allocated to the salary cap becomes the responsibility of the team in the event of a release. With a trade, the future guarantees would simply transfer to the new team, leaving behind just the unallocated bonus cap as the current team's dead cap."

When it comes to dead cap money, the Cardinals currently sit at No. 20 in the league this year with $11.56 million in money being paid to players who are no longer on the team. The Tampa Bay Buccaneers lead the league with $74.3 million.

In total, 15 players account for Arizona's dead cap total:

1. Jordan Phillips ($5.9 million)
2. Devon Kennard ($2.1 million)
3. A.J. Green ($1.25 million)
4. Markus Golden ($1 million)
5. Jeff Gladney ($1 million)
6. Christian Matthew ($63,363)
7. Jesse Luketa ($57,756)
8. Eno Benjamin ($25,678)
9. Darrell Baker Jr. ($13,334)
10. Jontre Kirklin ($13,334)
11. JaVonta Payton ($13,334)
12. Manny Jones ($10,000)
13. Chris Pierce Jr. ($6,667)
14. Ronnie Rivers ($6,000)
15. Chandler Wooten ($3,334)

As far as active players go, Kyler Murray leads the way with a whopping $97.52 million in dead cap if he released or traded.

The next highest players are D.J. Humphries ($26.25 million), DeAndre Hopkins ($22.6 million), Jalen Thompson ($17.17 million), Zach Ertz ($14.5 million), Marquise Brown ($13.41 million) and James Conner ($11.75 million).