With NFL contracts, there are times when a team must cut their ties to a player even if it doesn’t make the most financial sense. That’s because the structure of the contract forces a team to take on what is called dead money against the salary cap. Just like it implies, this is money on the books that the team cannot spend on other players.
For the Pittsburgh Steelers, they are sitting pretty, not only in terms of the salary cap but dead money as well. Pittsburgh has just over $15 million in cap space and only $11.4 million in dead money. The biggest offender is defensive tackle Stephon Tuitt who is still on the books for $4.755 million.
This might sound like a lot but to compare, the Tampa Bay Buccaneers have a whopping $75 million in dead money thanks to the retirement of quarterback Tom Brady. The amount of dead cap across the league varies wildly with the Bucs at the top and at the very bottom are the Cincinnati Bengals with only $594,004 in dead money.
