Las Vegas Raiders fans don't need to be reminded of all the terrible, senseless and quite debilitating contracts that the front office has handed out over the years. It seems like a veteran signing with the Raiders or a prospect being drafted early in Las Vegas has been the kiss of death for a player.
While the tide is finally starting to turn with John Spytek at the helm, and Klint Kubiak workly closely in tandem with him, the Silver and Black are still paying for their past mistakes in a major way. The poor decisions of past regimes are still very much affecting the new leadership in Las Vegas.
It's good to admit your mistakes and ditch failed players and their price tags, but dead cap hits still exist. So, while the Raiders finally got some bad contracts off the books ahead of the 2026 NFL season, the team is still paying for players who won't play for the team this year.
Raiders are finally off the hook with four former players in 2026
Note: All dead cap figures are courtesy of Spotrac.
Davante Adams ($15.7 million in 2025)
Adams was traded early in the 2024 season, but the team was still on the hook for $15.7 million last year against the cap, even though he was on his second team since leaving Las Vegas. But now that they are two years removed from the Adams saga, the Raiders won't lose cap space for him aynmore.
Jimmy Garoppolo ($12.8 million in 2025)
Garoppolo started just six games for the Raiders in 2023, and yet he was still taking up $12.8 million of the team's salary cap space in 2025. No longer, though, as Las Vegas is finally free of Garoppolo after watching nearly a dozen quarterbacks play for the team in the interim. Let's celebrate!
Gardner Minshew ($7.7 million in 2025)
Minshew was the team's not-so-clever solution to the Garoppolo crisis, and he lasted just one season with the franchise. So, the Raiders still had to allocate $7.7 million in salary cap space for Minshew in 2025. Thankfully, that won't be the case in 2026.
Andre James ($7.3 million in 2025)
James was handed a sizeable extension by Tom Telesco, but after a down year in 2024, Spytek ended that experiment in Las Vegas. Still, the Raiders were accountable for $7.3 million to him in 2025. Now that the calendar has flipped to 2026, though, James isn't factoring into the team's financial equation.
Raiders are still paying for several awful contracts
Tyree Wilson ($3.8 million)
Wilson, of course, was traded earlier this offseason, so the team is still liable for $3.8 million in dead cap money. His new team, the New Orleans Saints, is only taking on a cap hit of $4.2 million to have him on the team. It was necessary, but the dollars and cents of the move aren't pretty for the Raiders.
Jakobi Meyers ($4.3 million)
Meyers was traded halfway through the 2025 season and left a $9.6 million dead cap hit in his wake for just seven games played. In a way, it's good that the dead cap hit for Meyers has been more than cut in half to just $4.3 million this year, but it's still not good Las Vegas is on the books for him in 2026.
Geno Smith ($16.2 million)
Getting rid of Smith was wholly necessary, and in most ways, worth of every penny. But a $16.2 million dead cap hit is still a huge chunk of change for a player who will be starting across the conference. Smith wasn't worth a penny of this deal, and it's worse than the contract isn't done.
Christian Wilkins ($29.8 million)
Without going on too much of a tangent, the NFL is pretty lenient and forgiving with players for... let's just call them nefarious extraciriccular activities. The fact that Wilkins hasn't gotten another chance in the league is mind-boggling, and makes you wonder what on earth happened in that locker room.
From a financial perspective, this is one of the worst deals the Raiders have ever made. They paid a guy $110 million for five games, and Las Vegas owes him a monumental $29.8 million this season. That is nearly Maxx Crosby money for a guy who hasn't been in the building for over a year. Ugh.
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