An important date on the NFL calendar for the Jacksonville Jaguars and the rest of the league is upon us — June 1st.
After this date, any veteran roster cuts that take place have the potential to provide additional salary cap savings for a team.
If a player is released prior to that date, the full dead cap amount from the contract must remain on the current year’s salary cap.
However, when a player is released after June 1st, the dead cap from the deal can be spread out over the 2026 and 2027 seasons, thus resulting in greater cap savings for this season.
Teams do have the ability to release a player prior to June 1st with a post-June 1st designation, allowing that player to catch on with a new team sooner, while the current team can still reap the additional cap savings once that date has passed.
Could the Jaguars release any veteran post-June 1st?
A popular name when it comes to the Jaguars and this conversation is defensive tackle Arik Armstead, who is entering the final year of his deal.
If Armstead were released prior to June 1st, the Jaguars would save $2.28 million in 2026 cap savings. But by releasing him after June 1st, the team would create $14.48 million in 2026 cap space.
That said, we recently highlighted why this move doesn’t make much sense for the Jaguars.
But one name to watch between June 2nd and roster cutdowns is tight end Hunter Long, who could be pushed off the roster with the additions of Nate Boerkircher and Tanner Koziol in the NFL draft. Moving on from Long would create an additional $1.382 million in cap space.
For a breakdown of the Jaguars’ current salary cap situation, you can find that here.
This article originally appeared on Jaguars Wire: Significance of June 1st for Jaguars’ 2026 salary cap