Two years ago, the Detroit Lions were paralyzed with a massive amount of dead salary cap money. The team spent some $67 million for players no longer on the team’s roster.
That figure dropped to a more manageable $20.3 million in the 2022 offseason, with GM Brad Holmes and salary cap guru Mike Disner processing through the bad contracts from the prior regime nicely. In 2023, that digesting of the dead cap continues.
In June of 2023, the Lions are charged with a dead cap figure of $18,690,639. The figure places the Lions near the dead middle of the league, ranking 15th overall (from low to high) in dead monies on the cap ledger for 2023. It’s the same ranking as last year despite dropping some $1.7 million from the dead cap figure.
Here’s how the Lions’ dead money breaks down over the five players counting against Detroit’s 2023 salary cap who are no longer on the Detroit roster.
All figures are from Over The Cap.
TOTAL $18,690,639