One of the major storylines from the Carolina Panthers 2020 season was the massive amount of dead cap space the team was burdened with when trying to construct a competitive roster. According to Spotrac, Carolina’s $54 million dead cap hit was the highest in the NFL. The average dead money across the rest league was $24 million, less than half of what Carolina incurred.
Not all dead money is bad, though. Often it’s in a team’s best interest to cut or trade a player because the transaction will free up more cap space than the dead money the team will incur.