OWINGS MILLS — The Ravens were only able to reach a deal with one of their five players who had void years in their contracts by the 4 p.m. deadline on Monday.
That means the team will have to add some dead money to the salary cap this offseason.
The void years are used to essentially help teams navigate the salary cap. The void years are often called “dummy years” or “fake years” on a contract that allows a team to spread out the signing bonus. The player does not play nor does he have a base salary for those years and is set to become a free agent once the contract voids.
Dead money is a salary cap charge for a player who is no longer on a team’s roster.
The Ravens were able to reach a one-year contract with wide receiver Nelson Agholor on Sunday, which saved the team $1.67 million in dead money.
However, the Ravens were not able to finalize deals with offensive guard Kevin Zeitler, which was the most costly because he added $4.3 million in dead money.
In addition, the Ravens also were not able to secure new contracts with running back Gus Edwards ($1.8 million in dead money), cornerback Rock Ya-Sin ($1.6 million) and safety Geno Stone ($600,000), according to overthecap.com.
That’s almost $$8.3 million of dead money on the team’s 2024 salary cap.
The Ravens could re-sign the players at a later date, but the team would have to pay for a new deal and absorb the expense of the dead money.
The Ravens also have nearly 20 other players eligible to become free agents on March 11th.
General manager Eric DeCosta expected these types of challenges after signing quarterback Lamar Jackson to a 5-year, $260 million extension last year. The deal impacts what DeCosta can do with the rest of the roster because of salary-cap limitations.
“We’ve shown that we’ll spend up to the cap every single year,” DeCosta said. “And we’ll do that. The landscape of this team has changed a little bit because we struck a contract with Lamar. And so, the way that we operate will be a little bit different in the future. We’ll continue to try and do early signings as much as possible. The draft will continue to be very, very important as well.”