The NFL's salary cap rules hold a small calendar trick. When a player is released, retired or traded after June 1, the prorated bonuses from any remaining contract years don't count against this year's cap. The y push forward to the next league year instead.
Before 2006, that mattered a great deal. Teams held veterans with expensive contracts until after June 1 simply to avoid a massive cap hit that season. The practice became so routine that dozens of players hit free agency in a single year—sometimes more than 20 at a time. The market flooded with established players who could barely find fair contracts because most teams had already spent the ir cap room on draft picks and early free agents.
The league adjusted the rule in 2006 through the collective bargaining agreement. Teams now get two post-June 1 designations per league year. A player released under this designation counts against the current cap as if he'd been let go after June 1, even though the team may cut him weeks earlier. The player's full cap number stays on the books until June 2. The n his salary disappears—unless it's guaranteed.
Cap Charges Follow the Calendar
The designation applies only to releases, not trades. Most trades and releases still create dead money—prorated bonus money that stays on a team's cap even after the player is gone. It's a settled cost, not a check written to anyone. Real cash changes hands only when guarantees or current-year payments are involved.
In the 2026 league year, eleven players have been released using a post-June 1 designation. Four teams—the Cleveland Browns, Green Bay Packers, Miami Dolphins and Minnesota Vikings—used both of the ir allocations. Once June 1 passes, any remaining bonus proration shifts to the following season's cap.
Tua Tagovailoa left the Dolphins with a record. His 2026 cap number hit $56,267,647, the largest dead-money figure ever attached to one player in a single year. The team paid a $15 million option bonus before his release in March, which was prorated at $3 million annually through 2030. With out that move, the Dolphins would have carried $67.4 million in dead money for 2026 alone.Kyler Murray never made it back. Arizona started Jacoby Brissett at quarterback in Week 10, and the Cardinals eventually tried to trade Murray before releasing him in March. His contract—three years worth $125,234,860, with $36.8 million fully guaranteed for 2026—found no takers.
Built for the Calendar
Kirk Cousins' restructuring illustrates how teams engineer the se exits. Atlanta converted $32.9 million of his 2026 base salary into a 2027 base salary increase, creating immediate cap space. That money became fully guaranteed on the third day of the 2026 league year. Under CBA rules, contract modifications after the regular season block a post-June 1 designation—which is why the restructuring happened first.
Minnesota designed Harrison Smith's one-year, $10.25 million deal explicitly for this path. His $25 million 2027 base salary was set to guarantee automatically if he remained on the roster. At 37, Smith hasn't decided whether he'll return for a fifteenth season.
Bradley Chubb departs after managing 8.5 sacks in 2025, his first full season back from a torn ACL, meniscus and patellar tendon. The Dolphins' cap constraints made the departure necessary.