Right guard Brandon Scherff was dependable throughout his three-year stint with the Jacksonville Jaguars. However, a new regime took over in 2025 and no longer saw him as part of its long-term plans, so he left in free agency. The five-time Pro Bowl nod remains unsigned as of this writing, but regardless of where he ultimately lands next season, he'll still be costing the Jags.
Michael Ginnitti of Spotrac drew up a list of the biggest dead money hits for each NFL team, and Scherff is the top one for Jacksonville at $13.8 million.
When Scherff signed a three-year deal with the Jaguars worth $49.6 million in 2025, the contract included several void years, so this doesn't come as a surprise. The team's brass knew that the bill was going to be due. On the other hand, the hit might have been lower if the Jags hadn't restructured the deal in 2024 instead of releasing him and freeing up $9 million. Then again, Jacksonville didn't have any other appealing options, so they went with the less terrible option.
And make no mistake, Scherff made 51 consecutive starts for the Jaguars, which is noteworthy when you take into account that the last time he played a full season before landing in Duval was in 2016. Surprisingly, the former Iowa Hawkeye managed to stay healthy and even had solid Pro Football Focus grades. On the other hand, he wasn't nearly as dominant as he was with the Commanders.
Couple that with the fact that Scherff is now 33, and it's easy to see why the Jaguars didn't make an effort to re-sign him.
Other players with big dead money hits who are no longer with the Jaguars are wide receiver Christian Kirk ($13.6 million), tight end Evan Engram ($13.5 million), defensive end Roy Robertson-Harris ($7.7 million), and wide receiver Gabe Davis ($5.7 million). In total, Jacksonville has $64 million in dead money in 2025, good for the fourth most in the NFL.
The Jaguars managed to work around Brandon Scherff's 2025 dead money
As high as Brandon Scherff's dead money hit is, it's not nearly as bad. In fact, the Jacksonville Jaguars managed to make several moves in the offseason in spite of the dead cap. One reason is that they cut ties with several underperforming veterans who no longer fit their vision. It also helped that they didn't make any splash signings in free agency and were instead selective when bringing in players.
Unlike Trent Baalke, who relied heavily on free agency, general manager James Gladstone is trying to build through the draft. That should allow the Jaguars to be in healthy cap shape in the upcoming years.
It's also worth noting that having lots of dead cap or add void years to contracts isn't necessarily a bad thing. Teams like the Philadelphia Eagles and the San Francisco 49ers often include void years in deals and give big signing bonuses to their marquee players all the time. This practice pushes big cap hits into the future and gives them plenty of flexibility in the short term. Then again, clubs have to take on the cap hit at some point.
The bottom line is that having so much dead money in 2025 is a reminder of the bad decision the past regime made. The silver lining is that it probably won't hamper the Jacksonville Jaguars' ability to win games next season.
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