While NFL front offices hope that every extension and free-agent signing turns into a home-run deal, the reality is that some contracts don’t work out. No decision-maker wants one of his team’s agreements to fail, but some pacts have proven to be a waste of money, while others have become total impediments to a club’s salary cap.
Let’s run through every team in the league and identify their worst contract for 2024.
Worst Contract for Every NFL Team in 2024
Arizona Cardinals | CB Sean Murphy-Bunting
While the Cardinals undoubtedly needed cornerback help this offseason, signing Sean Murphy-Bunting to a three-year, $25.5 million deal represented an overpay for general manager Monti Ossenfort. Murphy-Bunting earned just $3.5 million for the Titans in 2023, allowed a career-high 14.7 yards per completion, and missed three games with injuries.
It’s hard to imagine another team was willing to pay Murphy-Bunting at this level, and Arizona might regret his contract as soon as this season.
Atlanta Falcons | QB Kirk Cousins
Kirk Cousins made all the sense in the world for the Falcons this offseason. Still, his four-year, $180 million contract ($90 million guaranteed) was totally incongruent with Atlanta’s decision to choose QB Michael Penix Jr. in the first round of the 2024 NFL Draft.
Moreover, Cousins does not come without risk. He’ll turn 36 next month and is coming off a torn Achilles. Cousins should be productive inside the Falcons’ stacked offense, but the process that led to his signing has to be called into question.
Baltimore Ravens | OT Ronnie Stanley
Ronnie Stanley agreed to a pay cut this offseason but is still set to count for $17+ million on Baltimore’s books. While that’s not a terrible rate for a starting-caliber left tackle, Stanley’s knee issues have repeatedly kept him off the field. Stanley appeared in 13 games in 2023 but played 100% of the Ravens’ offensive snaps just four times, routinely splitting time with fellow offensive lineman Patrick Mekari.
Buffalo Bills | EDGE Von Miller
The Bills went outside their free-agent comfort zone to ink Von Miller to a six-year, $120 million contract in 2022. Although he posted eight sacks for Buffalo in his debut campaign, Miller subsequently tore his ACL, missed the first four games of the 2023 campaign, and then struggled upon his return, managing zero sacks and three QB hits.
Despite Miller’s forgettable season, the Bills hung onto the veteran pass rusher. They made him accept a pay cut, but Miller’s $15+ million cap figure will still represent an overpay if the 35-year-old is anonymous again this season.
Carolina Panthers | RB Miles Sanders
Miles Sanders earned his first Pro Bowl nod in 2022 while playing behind the Eagles’ NFL-best offensive line. Hoping the veteran RB could build on that production, the Panthers handed Sanders a four-year, $25.4 million contract with $13 million fully guaranteed.
Perhaps unsurprisingly, Sanders couldn’t live up to his end of the bargain in Carolina. He quickly lost his starting job to fellow RB Chuba Hubbard and received just 14 total carries over the final month of the season. With second-round RB Jonathon Brooks in town, Sanders has been pushed even further down the Panthers’ depth chart.
Chicago Bears | LB Tremaine Edmunds
The Bears made Tremaine Edmunds the league’s third-highest-paid linebacker by handing him a contract with an $18 million annual average value (AAV) before the 2023 season. Edmunds was a Bills first-round pick in 2018 but never quite lived up to his draft billing until 2022, when all the pieces seemed to come together.
However, Edmunds took a step back with Chicago last year, looking out of place at times at the second level while posting his worst missed-tackle rate (10.3%) since his rookie campaign. Fellow linebacker T.J. Edwards — who signed with the Bears for just $6.5 million per year — was the better player in 2023.
Cincinnati Bengals | LB Logan Wilson
One of the more frugal organizations in the NFL, the Bengals don’t have many overpaid players on their ledger. However, Logan Wilson took a step back in 2023 after inking a four-year, $36 million extension. Cincinnati’s entire defense struggled last season, and Wilson wasn’t immune, allowing 1.6 more yards per completion than he had the previous year.
Cleveland Browns | QB Deshaun Watson
The Browns’ 2022 Deshaun Watson acquisition will go down as one of the worst trades in NFL history, and the quarterback’s contract remains a total impediment. Cleveland gave up three first-round picks to land Watson while he was facing 24 allegations of sexual assault before signing him to a fully guaranteed $230 million extension.
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No other NFL team has followed suit with a fully guaranteed contract for their quarterback, while Watson has been abysmal as Cleveland’s starter. Injuries and a suspension have limited him to 12 games over two seasons. Watson’s 42.9 QBR would’ve ranked 24th league-wide in 2023 if he’d posted enough attempts to qualify.
Dallas Cowboys | QB Dak Prescott
Dak Prescott’s $40 million AAV is more than manageable for the Cowboys — at least, it would be had Dallas not let its franchise quarterback head into the 2024 campaign with a $55+ million cap charge and all sorts of contractual leverage. Prescott’s deal takes up so much cap space that the Cowboys could hardly operate during free agency. Jerry Jones and Co. should’ve explored trading Prescott if the team wasn’t willing to extend him at a market rate.
Denver Broncos | OT Mike McGlinchey
The Broncos wanted to fix their long-standing right tackle problem last offseason, so the club gave Mike McGlinchey a five-year deal worth $87.5 million. The former Notre Dame prospect has a top-10-pick pedigree, but he’s never played like it at the NFL level.
Denver structured McGlinchey’s deal with low cap hits ($6 million and $7.4 million) in 2023 and 2024. His number will shoot to almost $24 million in 2025. The Broncos can’t get out of McGlinchey’s contract until after the 2025 campaign.
Detroit Lions | QB Jared Goff
The Lions have a young roster and are still paying many players on rookie contracts. Meanwhile, their recent free-agent additions — like RB David Montgomery, DT DJ Reader, and G Kevin Zeitler — haven’t been excessively expensive.
Goff’s deal isn’t necessarily a negative, but at $53 million per year, he’s the NFL’s third-highest-paid QB behind Joe Burrow and Trevor Lawrence. Although Goff is an above-average starter, he’s not an elite passer. His new salary is manageable, but Detroit will have to keep hitting on cost-effective draft picks now that Goff has reached another salary tier.
Green Bay Packers | CB Jaire Alexander
Jaire Alexander’s high-end play is as good as nearly any NFL corner’s, but injuries have kept him off the field. A shoulder sprain cost him 13 games in 2021, while another shoulder issue kept Alexander on the sidelines for all but seven games in 2023.
Cornerback performance is mercurial as is, and Alexander was elite in 2020 and 2022, earning second-team All-Pro nods while allowing a sub-70 passer rating in both seasons. He’ll need to return to that level in 2024, when his $21 million AAV will still make him the highest-paid CB in the NFL.
Houston Texans | RB Joe Mixon
Don’t look now, but Joe Mixon is the NFL’s sixth-highest-paid running back in 2024. The Texans acquired Mixon in a salary-dump trade with the Bengals and — for some reason — opted to give the veteran RB a three-year extension worth $19.75 million, with $13 million fully guaranteed.
While Mixon’s salary will hardly break the bank, it’s unclear why Houston felt the need to extend him, given that he was already under contract for $5.75 million in 2023. GM Nick Caserio could’ve waited to see how Mixon performed in his Texans debut campaign before giving him more money.
Indianapolis Colts | RB Jonathan Taylor
It remains unclear how the Colts went from telling Jonathan Taylor he’d need to finish out his rookie contract before receiving a new deal to making him the NFL’s third-highest-paid running back in the span of a few months.
Indianapolis held nearly all the leverage in negotiations. Taylor could have threatened to sit out last season, but he would have tarnished his chances of reaching free agency in 2024. While he might be able to get back to the first-team All-Pro level he played at in 2021, Taylor has a long way to go to make good on his three-year, $42 million deal.
Jacksonville Jaguars | OT Cam Robinson
Cam Robinson’s $17.58 million AAV makes him the NFL’s eighth-highest-paid left tackle, but he’s never quite played at that level. In 2023, he was suspended for the first month of the season before missing four more games with a December knee injury.
Although the Jaguars have drafted fellow OTs Walker Little and Anton Harrison in recent years, Robinson is still their projected left tackle in 2024. His $21.9 million cap charge will rank fourth among LTs next season.
Kansas City Chiefs | OT Jawaan Taylor
Before Penei Sewell reset the right tackle market with a $28 million AAV, Jawaan Taylor’s $20 million salary sat atop the RT leaderboard. Taylor’s youth, size, and pedigree made him a tantalizing free-agent target for the Chiefs in 2023, but his first year in Kansas City was anything but smooth.
Taylor ranked 76th among 85 qualifying OTs in PFF’s grading, while he allowed more pressures (59) than any tackle in the league. And who can forget Taylor’s penalty issues — his 24 flags were six more than the next-most-penalized offensive tackle.
Las Vegas Raiders | DT Christian Wilkins
Christian Wilkins was the best DT available on the open market in 2024, and there was no doubt he’d get paid once contracts started getting handed out. His $27.5 million AAV ranks second among interior defenders, behind only Chris Jones.
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Wilkins is an excellent player, but he’s not quite the pass rusher that Jones or other defensive tackles like Quinnen Williams, Justin Madubuike, and Jeffery Simmons are. Las Vegas desperately needed interior-line help, but it paid full freight for a very good — not great — contributor.
Los Angeles Chargers | EDGE Joey Bosa
Although Joey Bosa accepted a $7 million pay cut from the Chargers this offseason, he’ll still count for more than $26 million on Los Angeles’ 2025 books. That’s an exorbitant salary for a pass rusher who’s been on the field for just 14 games and posted only nine sacks since 2022.
Jim Harbaugh and Co. retained Bosa and fellow EDGE Khalil Mack at reduced rates this offseason, but both veterans are likely entering their final season with the Bolts.
Los Angeles Rams | WR Cooper Kupp
Cooper Kupp won the receiving Triple Crown and Offensive Player of the Year honors in 2021, but injuries have defined his last two years with the Rams. While he appeared in 12 games in 2023, Kupp managed only 737 receiving yards, becoming the club’s WR2 behind emergent rookie Puka Nacua.
Kupp is now 31 but will carry a $29.87 million cap charge in 2024. If he doesn’t rebound, Los Angeles will almost surely cut ties next offseason.
Miami Dolphins | EDGE Bradley Chubb
The Dolphins are trying to work out new contracts for QB Tua Tagovailoa and WR Tyreek Hill, but Miami doesn’t have any egregious deals on its books at the moment.
Inking Bradley Chubb to a $22 million AAV represented a risk last November. But Chubb’s new deal was part of the price of acquiring him from the Broncos, while the one-time fifth overall pick delivered 11 sacks and a 15.7% pressure rate in 2023 before tearing his ACL. His recovery could be an issue, but the fact that Chubb might be the worst contract in Miami is a testament to the Dolphins’ front office.
Minnesota Vikings | CB Shaquill Griffin
The Vikings signed Shaquill Griffin this offseason, giving the veteran CB a one-year deal worth $4.55 million. Why is he on this list when he’s making such a relative pittance?
Because Minnesota’s Griffin addition appears to have canceled out one of the third-round compensatory picks the Vikings were in line to receive due to the free-agent losses of QB Kirk Cousins and EDGE Danielle Hunter. Had Minnesota waited until after May 1, it could have signed Griffin without risking its comp selections.
New England Patriots | WR JuJu Smith-Schuster
Circumstances matter. After posting nearly 1,000 yards with Patrick Mahomes and the Chiefs in 2022, JuJu Smith-Schuster fell back to earth with the Patriots in 2023. He dealt with a nagging knee issue after undergoing offseason surgery and put up just a 29-260-1 line for New England. The Pats will eat almost $10 million in dead money if they cut Smith-Schuster this summer, but a release is well within the realm of possibilities.
New Orleans Saints | RB Alvin Kamara
Alvin Kamara will be 29 when next season gets underway and is coming off a career-low scrimmage-yard campaign in which he ranked fourth worst in rushing yards over expectation per attempt. He’s still a weapon in the passing game (75 receptions on 86 targets), but Kamara’s receiving success rate dipped to just 45.3% in 2023.
The five-time Pro Bowler is under contract for the next two years, although he’ll never earn his gargantuan 2025 base salary ($22.4 million), which was inserted solely to drive up Kamara’s on-paper AAV. He wants a new contract, but the Saints probably won’t budge.
New York Giants | QB Daniel Jones
The Giants’ decision to sign Daniel Jones to a four-year, $160 million extension in 2023 looked like a mistake at the time and continues to hinder the NFC East franchise. Jones missed most of last year with various injuries (including a torn ACL) and wasn’t effective when available.
New York tried and failed to acquire a rookie quarterback in the 2024 NFL Draft, but rumors have suggested that new Giants QB2 Drew Lock could compete for the club’s starting job. Big Blue will almost certainly release Jones next offseason unless he’s a surprise Pro Bowler this year.
New York Jets | WR Allen Lazard
Allen Lazard may have been part of the Jets’ cost for acquiring Aaron Rodgers. The former Packers receiver (and Rodgers’ friend) is an excellent blocker, but he’d never posted a breakout receiving season before landing an $11 AAV from New York in 2023. Given a chance as Green Bay’s No. 1 target after the Packers traded Davante Adams, Lazard managed fewer than 800 yards on 100 targets.
Philadelphia Eagles | CB James Bradberry
Although the Eagles almost let James Bradberry walk after his 2022 second-team All-Pro season, they eventually re-signed the veteran corner on a three-year, $38 million pact. The deal quickly turned into a disaster.
Bradberry allowed 2.9 more yards per target and 2.5 more yards per completion than he did the previous season, and he gave up 11 touchdowns as the nearest defender in coverage — the most in the NFL. Philadelphia could cut its losses and release Bradberry before Week 1.
Pittsburgh Steelers | DT Cam Heyward
Cam Heyward is one of the NFL’s best players of the last decade, but the 2023 campaign wasn’t his most productive. A groin injury cost him six games near the beginning of the year, while Heyward managed only two sacks and three QB hits upon his return.
Heyward wants a new contract as he enters the last year of his deal, but the Steelers might be loath to give a 35-year-old more money, especially given that he will carry a $22 million+ cap figure this season.
San Francisco 49ers | EDGE Yetur Gross-Matos
We hate to pick on Yetur Gross-Matos, who will earn just $9 million annually on his new contract with the 49ers. But San Francisco doesn’t have many deals that it regrets. Gross-Matos has never topped five sacks in a season and ranked 74th among edge defenders in pass-rush win rate in 2023. He should probably be earning half of what he’ll make with the Niners next year.
Seattle Seahawks | DT Leonard Williams
While Leonard Williams is an outstanding run defender, he’s not a dominant pass rusher. He’s also entering his age-30 campaign. However, the Seahawks still gave Williams $21.5 million annually, just $1 million per year shy of Giants DT Dexter Lawrence, who’s a far superior interior presence.
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Seattle traded a second-round pick to New York for Williams at last year’s deadline, so the club likely felt pressured to bring him back — even on an overpay.
Tampa Bay Buccaneers | DT Vita Vea
The Buccaneers don’t have any obviously poor contracts on their salary cap. Like Williams, Vita Vea is more of a run defender than a pass rusher, but he can still get after opposing quarterbacks (11 sacks over the past two seasons). Although Tampa Bay might be concerned that a 350-pound player like Vea could quickly fall off a cliff, he can be released with minimal financial consequences next year.
Tennessee Titans | WR Calvin Ridley
Still reeling from trading A.J. Brown to the Eagles in 2022, the Titans were willing to do just about anything to sign Calvin Ridley this offseason. The WR market exploded over the past few months, making Ridley’s four-year, $92 million seem a bit more palatable. However, to make this contract worthwhile, Ridley needs to match his 2020 output — 90-1,374-9 with a second-team All-Pro berth.
Washington Commanders | G Nick Allegretti
While Allegretti’s three-year, $16 million deal with the Commanders hardly broke the bank, Washington still gave a relatively unproven guard $9 million in fully guaranteed money. Allegretti made just four starts and played fewer than 500 offensive snaps for the Chiefs over the past three seasons while working alongside far better talent than he’ll play with in the nation’s capital.
