Salary Cap and Contract Dollars Lost to the Reserve Lists

With final cuts out of the way, the actual rosters of teams begin to take shape now that the short term injured reserve is available to teams to utilize. In order to potentially use short term IR teams had to carry players on the 53 man roster for a day until placing them on IR. With the IR lists now largely set I wanted to look at just how much teams are losing to the various reserve lists (IR, PUP, NFI, and Left squad) in week 1 of the season.

At the top of the list is the New York Jets with $33.27 million in contract value and $29.1M in cap room sitting on the sidelines. A good chunk of that is from Carl Lawson but they do also lead the NFL with 13 names. Alex Lewis and Jarrad Davis are the other bigger names for the Jets.

The Patriots come in at number 2 with just under $26M in contracts on reserve and just over $26M in cap space on reserve. Stefon Gilmore is the big name for New England. Gilmore is on the PUP list and unhappy with his contract. If he is unable to play this year expect more unhappiness as he will lose his free agent status in 2022.

The Packers rank number 3 and it is almost all for one player- David Bakhtiari- who makes up $23M of the $24.7M in contract charges. His cap number is much lower however so they are not top 3 in cap lost to the reserve lists. Rounding out the top 5 are Saints ($22M/$13M) and Steelers ($20M/$14M).

The healthiest team so far is the Chargers with just $1.39 million in contract value on reserve, well under the league average of $10.8 million. Buffalo is next with $2.75 million while the Texans have $3.4 million sidelined.

Here is the list as of September 2. This will change as settlements are reached in the coming days with players who do not fit into the future plans of teams and have minor injuries.

TeamPlayersAPYSalary Cap
Jets13$33,272,576$29,083,416
Patriots13$25,728,574$26,529,572
Packers3$24,700,000$12,666,543
Saints5$22,335,000$12,776,666
Steelers6$20,234,358$14,134,691
Colts12$19,165,662$17,433,216
Bears5$16,399,462$10,674,916
Cardinals5$13,625,833$13,767,500
Ravens11$13,264,722$9,922,622
Cowboys13$12,381,250$9,654,229
Giants11$12,162,633$8,118,106
Raiders6$10,950,000$10,728,333
Vikings12$10,713,190$9,130,807
Broncos10$9,845,349$8,370,189
Falcons7$8,749,740$8,163,490
49ers8$8,336,873$8,502,133
Titans9$8,132,500$4,904,167
Lions8$7,706,497$8,457,078
Dolphins5$7,425,256$5,081,264
Jaguars5$6,937,028$4,274,277
Eagles8$6,907,184$4,533,700
Browns8$6,696,745$5,014,925
Buccaneers7$5,528,767$3,824,601
Rams6$5,445,852$4,481,804
Bengals5$4,643,296$2,860,087
Football Team6$4,617,242$2,436,409
Seahawks4$4,455,730$3,564,259
Panthers5$4,084,130$2,352,047
Chiefs3$3,634,429$3,121,298
Texans3$3,390,000$2,346,176
Bills3$2,753,135$1,642,302
Chargers2$1,393,333$1,265,000
NFL Average7.1$10,800,511$8,431,744