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Explaining Void Years and How NFL Teams Use them to their Advantage


Explaining Void Years and How NFL Teams Use them to their Advantage


When discussing what gives NFL teams the best chance to succeed, many focus on drafting an elite quarterback or signing superstar free agents. While often overlooked, crafting strategic contracts is a key way teams can gain a competitive edge. One strategy that can give NFL teams a strategic advantage over their competition is void years. 


What Are Void Years?


Void years are extra years added onto a players’ contract in which they are not under contract to play for the team.[2] Void years provide teams with the benefit of extending their competitive window by giving them the ability to spread out the salary cap and push money into the future.[3] An example of this is the defending Super Bowl champion Philadelphia Eagles five year, $255 million contract agreement with Quarterback Jalen Hurts.[4] Hurts’ contract requires him to play for the Eagles until 2028, but he will be paid until 2032, deferring roughly $98 million in cap costs.[5] This allows Hurts’ cap hit to account for roughly seven percent of the team’s salary cap in 2025, despite his Average Annual Value (AAV) demanding nearly 20 percent of it.[6]


The strategy relies on the assumption that the NFL salary cap will continue to rise. In 2029, the league has opt-out clauses in all of its broadcast contracts and is widely expected to exercise them.[7] With the NBA recently signing an 11-year, $76 billion deal with ESPN, NBA, and Amazon, the NFL’s next round of media rights agreements are projected to grow substantially.[8]The new deals could lead to a dramatic cap, similar to the 2006 season, which saw a 19.3% year-over-year[9] rise driven in part by new media deals in other sports signed a few years earlier.[10]


The Need for Void Years


NFL teams can spread out the cap space when signing players to new contracts through both signing bonuses and option bonuses.[11] Teams can spread out a signing bonus for contracts over a maximum of five years, regardless of the length of the contract.[12] However, teams can further spread out the money owed in a contract through void years and option bonuses.[13] Option bonuses can also be spread out over a maximum of five years, but they can be given out during any year of the contract, thus giving teams even greater financial flexibility. [14]


A recent example of this was the contract Jacksonville Jaguars Quarterback Trevor Lawrence signed in 2024.[15] Lawrence’s contract contains four consecutive option bonuses, which allows the team to spread the cap through 2032 despite the contract ending in 2030.[16]


Most teams use void years in quarterback contracts to minimize the immediate impacts on their salary cap, as quarterbacks are the highest paid position in the sport by a significant margin.[17] However, many teams limit the utilization to quarterback contracts and other high value contracts, because overusing them can limit future flexibility and make teams quickly accumulate dead cap.[18] If a player still has guaranteed money on his contract and is cut or traded, the remaining guaranteed salary is converted into dead cap and counts toward the team’s salary cap that year.[19] Because contracts with void years include guaranteed money in years where the players are not signed to the team, dead cap inevitably rises.


Downsides of Void Years


Though Lawrence’s cap hit will be manageable in the short term, it will also lead to accumulated dead cap at the end of the contract.[20] Because of the Jaguars’ utilization of void years, they had the fourth-most dead money in the league in 2025, and thus could only afford to sign low-end free agents despite being in need of boosting the roster further. [21]One reason other teams do not utilize void years as frequently as the Eagles is that it costs owners upfront cash, which likely explains why Eagles owner Jeffrey Lurie boosted his liquidity by selling an 8% stake in the team.[22]


Another reason teams refrain from overusing void years is because it heavily values, the short term benefits of being able to have many large contracts on the roster more than potential future flexibility, so it only makes sense for true Super Bowl contenders to use it aggressively. While the Eagles’ aggressiveness was ultimately rewarded with a Super Bowl, the New Orleans Saints are still dealing with cap struggles that resulted from them rigorously utilizing this strategy during the Drew Brees era.[23] The Saints tried to maximize their Super Bowl window, and they are now paying the price.[24] An example of this is offensive guard Andrus Peat, who was their eighth-highest salary cap hit in 2024 despite not being on the team. Additionally, they had to pay Brees over $22 million in 2021 and 2022, even though he retired in 2020.[25] This is why, despite years of disappointing seasons, the team does not have the cap space to improve.[26]


Maximizing the Use of Void Years


The defending Super Bowl champion Philadelphia Eagles use this technique more extensively than every other team, giving them a strategic advantage in the present. They have approximately $380 million in deferred cap costs tied to void years, more than double any other team in the league.[27]


The Eagles use this technique on nearly every contract they sign. Each of the team’s ten highest paid players on non-rookie deals — Hurts, AJ Brown, Landon Dickerson, Devonta Smith, Cam Jurgens, Jordan Mailata, Zack Baun, Saquon Barkley, Lane Johnson, and Jake Elliott — have multiple void years built into their contracts to spread out option bonuses.[28]


Even smaller contracts like Josh Uche, Adoree Jackson, and Kylen Granson, each signed one-year contracts worth under $2 million that include four void years.[29]


Most teams do not bother structuring their low-end contracts with void years just to save a few hundred thousand dollars on the cap hit each year[30], but the Eagles commitment to the strategy has given them a distinct advantage in maximizing their Super Bowl window.

In 2029, Hurts, Mailata, Johnson, Smith, Dickerson, Barkley, Baun, and Elliott are set to account for a cap hit of over $140 million, despite none of them being under contract.[31] Although the salary cap has risen nearly 53% since 2021 and is expected to keep increasing, committing that much cap space to unsigned players could be detrimental to the team’s success.[32] Thus, the Eagles are likely planning to extend many of these players again, adding additional void years to further soften the cap impact.


Looking Ahead


Given the NFL’s impending media deals, it appears Howie Roseman and the Eagles are strategically structuring their contracts with the expectation of a significant salary cap jump following the 2029 season. This increase would help mitigate the impact of their players’ high cap hits that will go into effect that season.[33]


The NFL’s collective bargaining agreement is set to expire in March 2031[34], and Commissioner Roger Goodell has hinted that he may seek to ban the use of void years that have been used to manipulate the ”integrity“ of the cap.[35] 


The move would eliminate one of the most effective cap strategies that has been utilized for the past decade, and teams would need to rethink how to construct their contracts to give them a new advantage.


Sam Lockwood (guest writer) is a 1L from St. Louis, Missouri. After graduating from the University of Miami in 2021, he worked in financial communications in New York City and published his debut novel in 2024 before joining the Villanova Law community in 2025. In his spare time, he closely follows the NFL, particularly the Philadelphia Eagles.



References:

[2] Eric Eager, Void Years Explained, (Apr. 4, 2023), https://sumersports.com/the-zone/void-years-explained/

[3] Id.

[4] Tom Pelissero and Ian Rapoport, Jalen Hurts, Eagles Agree to Terms on Five-Year, $255 Million Contract Extension, (Apr. 18, 2023) www.nfl.com/news/jalen-hurts-eagles-five-year-255-million-contract-extension

[5] Beaton, supra note 2.

[6] Id.

[7] Mike Florio, Get ready for all NFL broadcast deals to be scrapped as of 2029, (May 11, 2024), https://www.nbcsports.com/nfl/profootballtalk/rumor-mill/news/get-ready-for-all-nfl-broadcast-deals-to-be-scrapped-as-of-2029

[8] Sam Quinn, NBA signs new TV deal: Details on 11-year, $76 billion deal with ESPN, NBC, Amazon as TNT gets left out, (Jul. 24, 2024), https://www.cbssports.com/nba/news/nba-signs-new-tv-deal-details-on-11-year-76-billion-deal-with-espn-nbc-amazon-as-tnt-gets-left-out/

[9] Spotrac, NFL Salary Caps and CBAs, https://www.spotrac.com/nfl/cba

[10] David Barron, NFL lands $8 billion in TV deals, (Nov. 9,  2004), https://www.chron.com/sports/texans/article/nfl-lands-8-billion-in-tv-deals-1970948.php

[12] Id.

[13] Id.

[14] Kenny Ortiz, Option Bonuses: What Are They? How Do They Work? Who’s Using Them?, (May 11, 2025), https://thecapisfake.com/2025/05/11/option-bonuses-what-are-they-how-do-they-work/

[16] Id.

[17] Over The Cap, Quarterback Contracts and Salaries, https://overthecap.com/position/quarterback

[19] Michael Ginitti, Understanding NFL Dead Cap, (Feb. 15, 2021), https://www.spotrac.com/news/_/id/1160/understanding-nfl-dead-cap

[20] Spottrac, supra note 14.

[21] Travis Holmes, Salary cap update: Jaguars have fourth-most dead money in NFL, (Mar 29, 2025),

[22] Glenn Erby, Eagles franchise now valued at $8.1B after Jeffrey Lurie sells two minority stakes, (Nov. 25, 2024), https://www.usatoday.com/story/sports/nfl/eagles/2024/11/25/eagles-news-jeffrey-lurie-sale-minority-stake-ed-peskowitz-susan-kim-amkor-technology/76565385007/

[23] Matt Warren, The Saints’ NFL salary cap doom spiral, explained, (Feb. 23, 2024)

[24] Id.

[25] Id.

[26] Id.

[27] Beaton, supra note 2.

[29] Id.

[30] Beaton, supra note 2.

[31] Spotrac, Philadelphia Eagles 2029 Cap Table, https://www.spotrac.com/nfl/philadelphia-eagles/cap/_/year/2029

[32] Spotrac, supra note 7.

[33] Spotrac, supra note 29.

[34] NFLPA, How long does the current CBA go?,  https://nflpa.com/faq/how-long-does-the-current-cba-go

[35] Andrew Brandt, Business of Football: Making Sense of Roger Goodell’s Comments About the Salary Cap, (May 29, 2025), https://www.si.com/nfl/business-of-football-goodell-salary-cap-comments


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