March 20, 2026, 3:19 p.m. ET
The Jacksonville Jaguars have faced a tight salary cap situation all offseason, and there is a very specific reason for that.
Even after a quiet free agency, Jacksonville still has just $5.98 million in salary cap space. Only five teams have fewer.
So, where has all of the Jaguars‘ cap space gone? Well, a large portion of it is devoted to dead cap.
In short, dead money is dollars that have been paid to a player but haven’t yet been accounted for against the salary cap. Just because a player is released or traded, some of those cap charges still have to hit the books.
According to Over the Cap, of the $301.2 million in salary cap dollars that could be spent by the Jaguars this season, $53.34 of that is in the form of dead cap and can’t be utilized. That is the seventh-most in the NFL.
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The reason that the Jaguars’ dead cap total is so high is because of all the roster turnover that took place last season under GM James Gladstone in his first year at the helm.
Financially, the Jaguars will be absorbing a lot of those previous roster decisions in 2026, but those deals will then be off the books going into 2027.
CB Tyson Campbell: $19.5MWR Gabe Davis: $14.6MCB Greg Newsome: $7.05MS Darnell Savage: $6.2MWR Dyami Brown: $1.92MIDL Khalen Saunders: $1.86MTE Johnny Mundt: $500,000OL Javon Foster: $398,532IDL Jordan Jefferson: $391,538RB Tank Bigsby: $230,530IDL Tyler Lacy: $171,780CB Deantre Prince: $166,114RB Keilan Robinson: $140,978
Gladstone recently discussed the reason behind the Jaguars’ quiet approach to free agency, highlighting the team wanting to preserve the 2027 compensatory picks they are projected to land. However, the Jaguars’ limited spending power is likely a factor as well.