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Matt Ryan's 14-year tenure with the Atlanta Falcons came to an end on Monday, with the Falcons taking on $40.525 million of dead cap money, making it the largest dead cap hit in NFL history. Ryan, a 4-time Pro Bowler, was traded to the Indianapolis Colts for a 2022 third-round draft pick.
To put it simply, dead-cap money is any money that counts against a team's salary cap, mostly to players who have been traded or released, like Ryan, before the end of their contract.
Ryan had signed a $150 million five-year contract extension with the Atlanta Falcons in 2018, including a $100 million guaranteed.
Earlier this month, the Falcons restructured Matt Ryan's contract, in an attempt to create more cap space. This is something they've done for four years running, according to Michael Rothstein of ESPN.
Now that the Falcons have cut ties with Ryan and taken on the massive dead-cap hit, it's time to look at the five largest dead-cap hits in NFL history.
5 largest dead cap hits in NFL history ft. Matt Ryan
#5 - Brandin Cooks - $21.8 million
The Los Angeles Rams have never been afraid to throw their weight around, and they did so when they traded for Brandin Cooks from the New England Patriots in return for a first- and fifth-round draft pick in 2018.
Cooks was signed with $50 million guaranteed in April 2018. However, just three months later, in July 2018, before even playing a regular season snap for L.A., Cooks signed a five-year $80 million extension in July 2018.
Despite putting up a career-high 1,204 yards receiving in 2018 with the Rams, his contract wasn't worth the price in the team's view. The deal for Cooks left the Rams in $21.8 million in dead cap money after they traded him to the Houston Texans in April 2020 after two seasons in L.A.
#4 - Jared Goff - $22.2 million
Less than a year after taking the hit with the Brandin Cooks to the Texans trade, the Los Angeles Rams took another dead cap money blow when they traded quarterback Jared Goff to the Detroit Lions in 2021. Goff was traded to the Lions in return for Matthew Stafford, two first-round picks and a third-round pick in March 2021. This led to $22.2 million dead-cap money being taken up by L.A.
In April 2019, the Rams exercised Goff's fifth-year option, and just months later, he agreed to a four-year extension worth $134 million with $110 million fully guaranteed, a league record at the time.
The deal could have gone down as one of the worst in NFL history, had Matthew Stafford not come in to replace Goff and win the Super Bowl in his first season as the starting quarterback for the Rams.
5 largest dead cap hits in NFL history ft. Matt Ryan
#3 - Julio Jones - $23.25 million
Julio Jones was one of the best wideouts in the league, from being drafted in 2011, until the Falcons and Jones agreed on a three-year $66 million contract extension during the 2019 offseason. However, injuries limited him to just 24 games during two years of that contract, before he was traded to the Tennessee Titans.
With this trade, which was a Titans' second-round draft pick in return for Jones and a sixth-rounder, the Falcons were left with a total dead-cap hit of $23.25 million. This was spread over two years, with $7.75 million in 2021 and $15.5 million in 2022.
#2 - Carson Wentz - $33.8 million
The Philadelphia Eagles traded up to select Carson Wentz second overall in the 2016 NFL draft, and following an MVP-level season before getting hurt in 2017, and a solid enough 2018 following his return from an ACL tear, the Eagles thought he deserved to be paid.
In April 2019, the Eagles exercised the fifth-year option on Wentz's contract, and in June of that year, Wentz signed a four-year, $128 million contract extension with $107 million guaranteed. The deal included a signing bonus which was to be paid when the deal began in 2021, but spread to 2024 to lower his cap hit.
Unfortunately for the Eagles, Wentz' play fell off a cliff, and he was traded to the Indianapolis Colts in 2021 for a 2021 second-round and 2022 first-round draft pick.
This dead-cap hit cost the Eagles around 20% of their projected cap spend for 2021.
#1 - Matt Ryan - $40.525 million
This week, the Atlanta Falcons lost out on the Deshaun Watson sweepstakes, but the team already had plans in place to move on from legendary veteran Matt Ryan. This is mainly due to his huge contract, rather than his on-field play.
The Falcons have restructured Ryan's contract every offseason for the past four years, and they were happy to get his contract off the books in a trade with the Indianapolis Colts for a 2022 third-round draft pick.
Ryan had signed a five-year, $150 million extension with the Falcons, including $100 million guaranteed in 2018, and the Falcons have tried year-on-year to restructure the deal to create cap space.
After the trade, the Atlanta Falcons have had to eat up the largest dead cap hit in NFL history by nearly $7 million.
However, they now have around $9 million in cap space to work with, and acted quickly to replace Ryan, bringing in former Titans quarterback Marcus Mariota, who worked with Atlanta head coach Arthur Smith in Tennessee.
