While we still don’t know if the Carolina Panthers brand new—to them—left tackle, Russell Okung, will retire, we do know what will happen to their salary cap if he does: It’ll get screwed. The good news is that it was already screwed. So, really, what’s a little more screwed between friends and fans?
As it stands, the Carolina Panthers have $42,925,426 in dead money against the NFL’s $198.2 million cap. Okung’s retirement would slate his fully guaranteed, one-year $13,187,500 contract as dead money. That brings their total up to a whopping $56,112,926 in dead money or, put a little more simply, 28% of the total salary cap.