Dead money is the term that describes players still being paid even though they no longer are on the team making payments to them. I would imagine that is a very commonly used word in Allen Park. Pat Kirwan of NFL.com looked at how much dead money there was in the NFL, and the article was somewhat surprising. Get this, 10% of the Lions' salary cap is dead money going towards wide receivers, but that isn't the only position.
A quick look at the Detroit salary cap, and you quickly realize the Lions have used a lot of salary-cap space to figure out the position -- and they haven't even signed Calvin Johnson yet. On the 2007 books, there are 16 wide receivers using up cap space. Mike Williams, Charles Rogers, Corey Bradford are no longer on the team but will eat up $10,229,720 of space this season (close to 10 percent of the cap). When Johnson finally signs his contract, the Lions will have close to $28 million in wide receivers alone. Throw in the dead money Ross Verba, James Hall, Dre Bly, Josh McCown and Marcus Pollard represent (a combined $6.4 million), and you can see the cost of getting a roster corrected.
Ahh yes, Matt Millen's work at its finest. I can only hope Calvin Johnson is as good as advertised, otherwise it'll just sting more and more to know that this all was a waste. I understand there will be dead money since players come and go so often, but with Matt Millen and the Lions, it is far too common, and really does hurt in the long run.