What are void years? A look at NFL salary cap manipulation and what it means
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By: Kevin Nogle
The Miami Dolphins signed free agent linebacker Shaq Barrett to a one-year contract with four void years on the end of the deal. What does that mean?
The NFL salary cap is the annual spending limit for each team each season. For the 2024 league year, the cap is set at $255.4 million, allowing teams only to spend that much on their roster for the season. Of course, teams know how to massage the cap, spending more than the allowance annually, with creative contract designs, accounting processes, and contract extensions moving money from one year’s salary cap into another. It allows teams to operate above the limit while kicking the can further down the road, moving money into a year where the salary cap may be more forgiving of a large cap number.
One creative way teams create salary cap space is through the use of the “void” year. This has come into focus for the Miami Dolphins recently when the team signed linebacker Shaq Barrett to a one-year contract but added four void years to the deal. What do these void years do? Why would a team use them? And what should Miami expect from the Barrett contract moving forward?
What are void years?
Void years are exactly what they sound like. The contract ends when the void years are triggered, typically with the changing of the league year and the start of free agency. An interesting piece of the void years is the player is technically released by the team when the void years hit, so he is a “street” free agency – free to sign with any other team, but does not factor into the compensatory picks calculations for the year.
Why would a team use a void year?
Salary cap manipulation. It is that simple. Using Barrett as an example, the Dolphins signed him to a one-year, $7 million contract ($6.75 million guaranteed). That should mean he accounts for a $7 million cap hit for the Dolphins. The team made $1.2 million of his deal a base salary – paid out per game during the year. He also receives a $250,000 per-game roster bonus. The team then made $5.5 million a signing bonus. Under the NFL’s rules, a signing bonus is spread evenly over the length of the contract, up to five years. If Barrett had a one-year contract, his signing bonus would be accounted for in that one year. If he signed a five-year contract, the bonus would be spread across all five years, with $1.1 million accounted for in each contract season. With the void years, the signing bonus is still accounted for across those years, at least for now. That allows the Dolphins to pay Barrett $7 million this season, but account for just $2.6 million against the 2024 salary cap.
What happens when the void years trigger?
Barret’s one-year contract with four void years means $2.6 million of the $7 million have been accounted for this season. The remaining $4.4 million has to be charged against Miami’s salary cap at some point. On paper, that is a $1.1 million charge in each of the 2025, 2026, 2027, and 2028 seasons. But, that is on paper.
Remember, when the void years are triggered, it is as if Miami has released him. That immediately accelerates all of the remaining signing bonus into the released year’s cap. Barrett will become a free agent next offseason, accelerating the 2026, 2027, and 2028 portions of his signing bonus accounting back into the 2025 cap. The Dolphins will see a cap charge of $4.4 million in 2025 – account for that money as “dead cap” space.
Barrett is not the only Dolphins player with void years on the back end of the contract, though a one-year deal with four void years is not the typical method of signing a player. Players signed to contract that include the salary cap move include linebacker Bradley Chubb who has a 2028 void year; offensive tackle Terron Armstead has void years in 2027 and 2028; cornerback Jalen Ramsey has void years in 2026, 2027, and 2028; defensive tackle Zach Sieler has void years in 2027 and 2028; and offensive tackle Austin Jackson has the 2027 and 2028 seasons as void years.
The Dolphins are not the only team using void years in contracts, and these are not new. Teams have been using void seasons for years, allowing them to manipulate the cap and they became more common when the COVID-19 season reduced the salary cap. Barrett’s contract with the Dolphins seemed to bring the process to light for many Dolphins fans as the team found a way to sign a veteran pass rusher during a year in which they were hard-pressed against the cap early in free agency.
Originally posted on The Phinsider
