Turf Show Times
Rams must work around a large portion of dead money again
It’s a familiar situation for the Los Angeles Rams, ranking seventh in the NFL in 2025 dead money on the salary cap. That’s $50 million that won’t be used on players who are helping the team this year, but sometimes that’s the cost of competing for Super Bowls.
This is where $50 million of dead money is being allocated in 2025:
With these numbers, Cooper Kupp has the second-highest cap hit on the entire team in 2025, behind only Matthew Stafford at $47.5 million.
Noteboom is tied with Tutu Atwell for the fifth-largest cap hit in 2025, followed by Aaron Donald at seventh, as he sits behind Colby Parkinson too. Then there’s Jonah Jackson, who has a cap hit that sits between A.J. Jackson and Tyler Higbee’s numbers.
This is the cost of doing business, but it is also a sign of the repercussions of sometimes doing bad business.
The Rams paid Kupp far more than they had to in 2022, coming off of his incredible career-best season, when he was already signed for three more years. They did the same with Donald, who will end up taking up a big portion of the cap for three consecutive seasons since retiring.
Noteboom and Jackson were just bad signings in general, and obviously Parkinson has not held up his end of the deal either. It should be a question if players like Parkinson end up as dead money this year too.
In a fortunate twist, two of the six teams with more dead money are also in the NFC West:
The 49ers have almost $81 million in dead money, most in the NFL, followed next by the Seahawks at $67.4 million.
The Cardinals only have $7.4 million in dead money, but what else would you expect from a team that has not had to extend many great players in their history.
These dead money hits are all but certain next year:
If Darious Williams is released, he will carry just $1.1 million in dead money.
If the Rams do not move forward with Matthew Stafford after 2025, then he will leave $41.2 million in dead money.
