One of the big questions for those of us on Malik Willis Watch 2026 was whether the Miami Dolphins or the Arizona Cardinals were able to afford to take on the dead cap for the straight releases of Tua Tagovailoa and Kyler Murray, their high-priced quarterbacks. On Tuesday, the Cardinals officially made their decision, as they let Murray know that they will be walking away from their partnership, per NFL Network’s Ian Rapoport, at the start of the new league year on March 11th.
As it stands right now,
the Cardinals will actually lose cap space in this move, as Murray was due a $52.7 million cap hit in 2026, but comes with a $54.7 million cap charge with his release. $17.9 million of that $54.7 million comes from previous signing bonuses that have already been paid out to Murray in cash, but haven’t yet been accounted for on the cap and will be accelerated to their 2026 cap upon his release. The remaining $36.8 million comes in the form of guarantees (with offsets) that Murray is due in 2026, so the Cardinals will be paying him that to not play for them in 2026.
Because of this structure, Murray is highly incentivized to play on a minimum deal in 2026, unless he can earn more than $36.8 million, since he’s getting $36.8 million either way. The only difference would be who is paying him, and taking a minimum deal puts the Cardinals more on the hook than whatever team he’ll be suiting up for in 2026. Yes, this is how the Minnesota Vikings basically get a starting quarterback for free.
If the Cardinals designate Murray as a post-June 1st release, they’ll carry his $52.7 million cap hit until June 1st. On that date, his cap charge will drop to just $40.3 million, which will create $12.4 million in cap space for Arizona after the June 1st date. But then they’ll also have an additional $14.4 million in dead cap due for the 2027 season, too.
Unless the team thinks they’re going to need that cap space to spend money in the summer (seems unlikely), Arizona will probably just eat all of the cap immediately and clean up their books for 2027. There has been no reporting that suggests that the Cardinals will post-June 1st designate the Murray release.
After the additional dead cap of the Murray release is calculated, Arizona will have $28.7 million in cap space going into 2026. The cap charge of a Willis signing will probably be north of $10 million in Year 1, since it’s unlikely that Willis signs a deal longer than three years (and it might be a two-year deal), considering his experience as a starter.
So if the Cardinals pivot from Murray to Willis, it will absorb close to half of the available cap space that they had going into this offseason.
