There’s a very legit reason why NFL general managers generally don’t like to add voidable years onto the back end of player contracts, and that is when a contact voids, the player might not be on the roster anymore, but the last of his prorated signing bonus is.
Such is the case with the New York Giants, who will carry just over $6.4 million in dead money due to the voiding of three contracts. They are cornerback Adoree’ Jackson ($2.988 million), defensive lineman A’Shawn Robinson 9$2.1 million), and quarterback Tyrod Taylor ($1.4 million).
While those numbers don’t look all that scary, the $6,488,334 dead money sum represents 36.9 percent of the team’s current $17.542 million and approximately two percent of the Giants’ total cap liabilities.
The Giant’s dead cap space already ranks second in the league, just behind the $24.536 million the Los Angeles Chargers have currently racked up. The Giants’ dead money exceeds the league average of $6.531 million. And with the team likely to trim guard Mark Glowinski’s contract from the books, that will add another $1.5 million to the dead-money pot.
Dead money cannot be avoided yearly, but the trick is to minimize it as much as possible, especially as the new league year approaches. The Giants haven’t done as good of a job minimizing their dead money. Last year, they ranked ninth in the league ($56.451 million). The year prior, they were sixth ($53.752 million).
A high dead money total doesn’t necessarily mean a team can’t be competitive, but it depends on how solid a team is before it starts racking up the dead dollars.
For a team like the Giants, who has seemingly had numerous holes affecting their depth, consistently ranking in the top 10 league-wide in dead money is something one would hope general manager Joe Schoen would look to fix moving forward.
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