The Arizona Cardinals unloaded enigmatic defensive lineman Robert Nkemdiche on Saturday, announcing his release after practice. While he had a few highlights in three seasons, he was mostly a disappointment as a 2016 first-round pick.
With his release, how does it impact the salary cap?
Nkemdiche was set to have a cap hit of $2.73 million. He was scheduled to earn $1.12 million in salary and a $400,000 roster bonus. That was due on the fifth day of training camp, which would have been Sunday.
None of the money was guaranteed so they potentially could gain a little more than $1.5 million in salary cap space. However, because he is coming off a torn ACL and is not healthy, he reportedly qualifies for injury protection under the collective bargaining agreement.
According to Joel Corry, instead of saving more than $1.5 million in cap space, they will gain a little less than $1 million.
If that is the case, it means they will carry nearly $1.7 million in dead money from his contract.
Ultimately, they gain less than $1 million and take a $1.7 million hit, but they get rid of one big headache.
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