Detroit Lions Carry Highest Dead Money Charges in NFL

The Detroit Lions lead the National Football League in dead money salary-cap costs.

Recall, dead money is a salary-cap charge for a player that is no longer on a team's roster. With how contracts are currently structured, bonuses that are paid out to players can be prorated or spread out evenly over the life of a contract for a maximum of five years.

With veteran linebacker Jamie Collins being released Tuesday, the Lions are now carrying over $55 million in dead salary-cap costs.

According to overthecap.com, cutting Collins tacked on $5.53 million to the already bloated cap number the Lions are carrying this season.

Matthew Stafford, Justin Coleman, Desmond Trufant and Collins now account for approximately $38 million in costs, even though they all no longer play in Motown.

On the other side of the coin, 20 other NFL teams carry less than $20 million in dead cap this season.

2021 dead money costs:

Matthew Stafford -- $19.0M
Justin Coleman -- $6.087M
Desmond Trufant -- $6.0M
Jamie Collins -- $5.533M
Jesse James -- $4.287M
Chase Daniel -- $3.0M
Christian Jones -- $2.185M
Breshad Perriman -- $2.0M
Danny Shelton -- $1.25M
Romeo Okwara -- $901K
Jahlani Tavai -- $808K
Randy Bullock -- $750K
Kerryon Johnson -- $702K
Darren Fells -- $462K
Dean Marlowe -- $437K
Joe Dahl -- $250K
Mike Ford -- $250K
Jason Huntley -- $217K
Quinton Dunbar -- $137K
Josh Hill -- $137K
Geronimo Allison -- $137K
Dan Skipper -- $127K

The Lions now are carrying more than $55M in dead money this season, with four players (Stafford, Coleman, Trufant and now Collins) accounting for around $38M of it.
— Chris Burke (@ChrisBurkeNFL) September 28, 2021

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