The Panthers Lead The NFL In Salary Cap Dead Money

The team leads the league with nearly a whopping $34.5 million.

The salary cap hasn't been too kind to Carolina in the 2020 off-season. After the recent release of safety Eric Reid, the Carolina Panthers have increased its amount of dead money. Prior to the release, the Panthers already led the league in dead money, and now, the Panthers' lead is even greater than before. 

According to overthecap.com, the Panthers have accumulated a total of $34,465,836 in dead money. Here's the list of players that took up the money, listed from greatest amount owed to least: Matt Kalil, Trai Turner, Eric Reid, Greg Olsen, Luke Kuechly, Dontari Poe, Mario Addison, Jarius Wright, Rashaan Gaulden, and Colin Jones. Kalil led the list with a total of $9,800,000. The most recent release of Reid gave the Panthers an extra $5,000,000 in dead money.

General manager Marty Hurney is mostly responsible for this massive amount of dead money. It doesn't help to know that the amount of space in the salary cap is also limited. As of today, the Panthers have nearly $11 million in cap space. This clearly won't be enough for any big splashes in free agency, and the dead money only adds insult to injury. Luckily, there should be a lot more space and less dead money in 2021, but if Marty Hurney's priority is right now, then this may be a big concern. 

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