Saints to pay $33 million in dead money to 10 former players

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The #DeadMoneyRecords hashtag has been popular within the New Orleans Saints fan community on Twitter for a hot minute now (parodying the famous New Orleans-based Cash Money Records production company, of course), and for good reason: few teams have piled up as much dead money as the Saints have over the last decade. Those payouts to players not on the roster anymore still count against the salary cap, limiting the team’s flexibility.

And the Saints aren’t out of the woods yet. Over The Cap has them with $33,777,787 million (about 18.5% of the NFL’s $182.5 million spending ceiling) tied up in salary cap charges to Drew Brees, Janoris Jenkins, Emmanuel Sanders, and other players they had to let go this offseason.

That number ranks fifth-most in the NFL, but there are some signs suggesting optimism. Only one other team in the top five won double-digit games last year and made the playoffs (the Los Angeles Rams, with over $39 million in dead money). The other three squads are all paying north of $42 million to players not on their rosters while simultaneously finishing with 4- or 5-win seasons in 2020. So it could be worse for the Saints.

But which players are still on the books for the Saints, and where have they landed around the NFL? Here are all ten of them:

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