There’s at least one clear goal of the San Francisco 49ers this offseason. They’re aiming to clean up some of their bad contracts by releasing or trading those contracts, accelerating dead cap hits, and eating all of that money before quarterback Brock Purdy starts making real QB money with his pending extension.
The result is a massive dead cap number that has only increased as the free agency process has played out. Our last check in had the team just over $65 million. With Javon Hargrave and Maliek Collins both released with post-June 1 designations, the 49ers are now on track to carry a dead cap number of at least $86,602,800 this season per Over the Cap. That accounts for about 31 percent of this year’s $279,200,000 salary cap.
The Seattle Seahawks are second in the NFL at $67,066,247 in dead money. The Indianapolis Colts are at the bottom of the league with $3,316,703, per OTC.
While the astronomical number is rough for this season, it helps clean things up for San Francisco down the road. Their only dead cap hits on the books so far for next season belong to Hargrave and Collins at a more reasonable cost of $21,559,000.
