June 1 designations can provide teams immediate cap relief, but the Lions elected not to use the option in 2025.
It’s June 2, and that means the NFL world is discussing how NFL teams have taken advantage of their Post-June 1 designations, clearing much-needed salary cap space for their franchises. However, in 2025, the Detroit Lions chose not to utilize any June 1 designations, and they were correct in doing so. Let’s discuss why.
For those unfamiliar with the designation, OverTheCap.com offers a comprehensive explainer detailing how the Post-June 1 designation works. But the CliffsNotes version of the rules is that it allows teams to release a player (no more than two per offseason) from their contract while splitting their salary cap penalty over two seasons (instead of one), thus potentially freeing up significant salary cap room in the upcoming season.
For example lets say a player has four years remaining on his contract and $5 million in prorated charges in each of those seasons. If he was cut prior to June 1 that would lead to $20 million in dead money this year. If cut after June 1 the player would instead have just $5 million in dead money in 2023 and now $15 million in 2024. While still the same number over two seasons the team has an out rather than being stuck due to the salary cap. — Jason Fitzgerald via OverTheCap
The rule is referred to as a “June 1” designation because, to take advantage of the process, teams are required to carry the designated player’s full cap hit until June 1, and the split occurs on June 2, which is when the cap relief takes effect.
Why some teams took advantage of the June 1 designation
Joel Corry, a former sports agent familiar with how NFL contracts and the salary cap works, wrote an article for CBS Sports discussing which teams took advantage of this rule in 2025 and why it can help them manage their salary cap.
“Fourteen players have been released during the 2025 league year with a post-June 1 designation,” Corry wrote. “Five teams, the Baltimore Ravens , Cleveland Browns , New York Jets , Philadelphia Eagles and San Francisco 49ers , used both of their post-June 1 designations.”
As Corry mentioned, the Ravens utilized both of their June 1 designations, releasing both kicker Justin Tucker and safety Marcus Williams, thus reducing their salary cap hits to $9 million in 2025 and pushing $10.7 million into 2026. Baltimore made these decisions because they only had roughly $8 million in salary cap space in 2025, and these moves allow them to expand that number to $18.7 million .
Why the Lions didn’t use a June 1 designation
So why didn’t the Lions take advantage of this opportunity in 2025? There are two main reasons.
First, the Lions did not have any released players that would justify using the designation. At this time, the Lions have around $21 million in dead cap penalties , but the majority of those cap hits are ones the Lions cannot alter, i.e., voided years due to a contract restructure (Carlton Davis), voided years due to contract expiration (Marcus Davenport), or previous June 1 designations (Cam Sutton—we still are not clear if there has been a resolution yet). Jalen Reeves-Maybin, who was released with a $2.75 million cap hit, was not eligible because he was in the final year of his contract, so there was no option of pushing money into future years. Players who were eligible and released, such as Antoine Green, had cap penalties of less than $60,000, making assigning a designation virtually unimpactful.
Secondly, with Detroit’s current cap situation, the Lions should have no interest in adding any more cap penalties into future seasons. At this time, the Lions have over $40 million in cap space for 2025, but they’ll need to rollover a significant portion of that into 2026 in order to gain some cap space. At this time, the Lions are projected to be roughly $55 million over the 2026 salary cap, but they appear to be exploring ways to reduce that number—they’ll have several options to do so next offseason.
By not adding more future debt with a June 1 designation, potentially rolling over a significant amount from 2025, along with a few simple contract restructures, Detroit should not only be able to get into a positive salary cap space but also free up salary cap space for several looming contract extensions.