June 1 is one of the most important dates on the NFL offseason calendar.
Teams can designate up to two players as post-June 1 cuts, meaning that they are officially released on June 2, which allows the team to spread out the player's dead cap money over more time.
This often happens to veterans who are making significant money but no longer factor into the team's future plans. In the case of the 49ers, those players are defensive linemen Maliek Collins and Javon Hargrave, who were designated back in March. San Francisco is set to gain $5.6 million with their releases. Here is the breakdown via Over The Cap:
"Collins had a $4.762 million cap charge which will now drop to just $1.358 million on the year. The team defers $4.074 million of his dead money to 2026. Collins signed a two year, $20 million contract with the Browns after he was cut. Hargrave’s signing always had a low probability of working out given the cost and this was pretty much the best case scenario for their cap. The team reworked this deal in early December to allow them to June 1 him. He will have $6.7 million in cap charges this year and a whopping $16.16 million in dead money for 2026. Like Tomlinson, Hargrave got a massive deal following a release, signing a two year, $30 million contract with the Vikings. The savings here will mainly be used to offset the cost of Bryce Huff who the team should be trading for this week. Huff will cost the team just under $8 million."
San Francisco is essentially trading Hargrave and Collins for Huff. Hopefully Huff can regain his form from 2023 when he recorded 10 sacks and 33 quarterback pressures. The 49ers will now have the second most salary cap space in the league at just over $55 million, setting them up nicely for the future.
