With the Cleveland Browns trading Myles Garrett, the discussion turns to if they should now trade Denzel Ward. Let us first deal with the financials of trading Denzel Ward.
In terms of cash his contract is:
2026 - $20m ($2.5m already paid)
2027 - $20.5m
He originally had a $2.5m roster bonus due in mid March but this was converted into a signing bonus to spread the cap hit over five years rather than all of it landing on the 2026 salary cap.
If traded his salary cap charge would drop from the current $30,893,412 to $13,464,000, creating $17,429,412 of 2026 cap space. They would then have a dead cap charge in 2027 of $18,692,200. It is important to remember with dead cap charges, this is money the player has previously been paid, so 2025 and before plus the $2.5m roster bonus. If you kept him for another two years you have $38m of cap charges to add due to the remaining cash he is to be paid.
They could have restructured the entire contract at the same time as doing his roster bonus but the fact they decided not to shows they are willing to keep the door open to a trade. A restructure would save another $12.48m of 2026 salary cap space but once this is done, he isn't likely to be traded.