NFL June 1 Cut Candidates and Trade Rumors: Is Dalvin Cook On The Move From The Vikings?

Published: May 23, 2023

Updated: May 23, 2023

The 2023 NFL offseason continues with teams holding offseason training activities (OTA's) and if you haven't checked out our 2023 Dynasty Rookie Rankings, it would be in your best interest to do so. But just because we're in the dog days of May, it doesn't mean we are limited to waiting for training camps to open at the end of July for some juicy fantasy football news to drop. We can still expect to see some transactions as early as next month. June 1^st used to be a dark day for NFL players. It’s historically been an important day for accounting purposes as any player cut before June 1 has their cap hit in the current year whereas any player cut after June 1 has it spread over the following two years. Classic NFL salary cap magic. So what essentially used to happen is teams would get all these rookies in the NFL draft and then they would cut the older veterans with bloated contracts right on June 1. Scary times. Since then, the invention of the “post-June 1 designation” has taken some of the drama away from the June 1 date but it still carries plenty of implications for NFL teams. And for our dynasty fantasy football teams.

The post June 1 designation allows teams to cut two players in advance of the deadline and designate them as if the transaction were occurring after June 1. This courtesy allows those players more time to find new teams and plan ahead. According to sources like Adam Schefter of ESPN.com and Ian Rapoport of NFL.com, here are the players that were released this offseason with a post June 1 designation.

Arizona Cardinals	Rodney Hudson
Arizona Cardinals	J.J. Watt
Cleveland Browns	John Johnson
Cleveland Browns	Jadeveon Clowney
Dallas Cowboys	Ezekiel Elliott
Miami Dolphins	Byron Jones
Washington Commanders	Chase Roullier

Potential Post June 1 Cut or Trade Candidates

When you look at this chart, you can see why June 1 isn’t really a day of reckoning anymore. Only two teams utilized the max number of post June 1 designations. That means that 30 other teams could have received the post June 1 benefits of cutting a player this spring but opted not to do it. Last year only two players were released the week following June 1 (Atlanta’s Rashaad Coward and New Orleans’s Sharif Finch) and neither carried serious cap implications. In fact, only ten players were released in the month of June last year. That said, the two obvious teams that could be looking to utilize this rule to move money forward are the two teams that have already used it twice, the Arizona Cardinals and Cleveland Browns. Let’s look at some potential impact players for fantasy football.

DeAndre Hopkins, Arizona Cardinals

There have been a lot of names mentioned as potential cut or trade candidates but no name has come up more than DeAndre Hopkins. And though the team recently suggested he’s “likely” staying, the NFL offseason is full of posturing and smoke screens to increase the value of guys you want to move and decrease the value of guys you want to draft or sign. You cannot trade a player with a post June 1 designation so the Cardinals may not have traded him before June 1 regardless. Every fantasy football player has said “fine I’ll just keep him” during trade negotiations, whether they mean it or not. And we’ve also seen surprise cuts to veterans in recent years like Leonard Fournette.

Zach Ertz, Arizona Cardinals

I know it’s a new regime in Arizona but I don’t see this one as likely because Ertz is obviously very familiar with the new regime as he played for Jonathan Gannon in Philadelphia. And he’s already had positive things to say. That said, he is an older player recovering from a significant injury on a team that is clearly rebuilding. And they have a solid young tight end in Trey McBride waiting in the wings. According to Spotrac.com, it does not make sense to cut him based on the cap implications, but a trade would see $3.5 million in dead cap in 2023, $4 million in 2024, and $9.1 million in savings. I imagine it would be an amicable trade to a team playing to win now without a lot coming back in compensation.

Anthony Schwartz, Cleveland Browns

I have to give the fantasy football community credit on this one as it’s looking like they were right to fade Schwartz. He was drafted as a speedy field stretcher which isn’t good for fantasy in the first place but he didn’t really even do much of that as he played less than 10% of the snaps last season. The Browns drafted Cedric Tillman, traded for Elijah Moore, and signed Marquise Goodwin so that doesn’t really instill confidence in Schwartz. Cutting him after June 1 would take half of his $448,372 million dollar contract and push it to 2024 which would open up $1.1 million in 2023.

Harrison Bryant, Cleveland Browns

Bryant is actually in the last year of his deal so there are no June 1 implications for him, but that doesn’t mean he’s not a fantasy-relevant cut candidate. He can be released with $2.7 million in savings with less than $200,000 dead cap so he really needs to earn his roster spot. They already have David Njoku and brought in Jordan Akins who played with DeShaun Watson in Houston so there’s a chance they take the savings and the roster spot.

Kellen Mond, Cleveland Browns

Things didn’t work out with the Vikings for Mond and it’s not looking great in Cleveland either. They have a long-term starter already. They signed Joshua Dobbs who proved serviceable last year with Tennessee. And they also took a stab on rookie Dorian Thompson-Robinson in the draft. The writing is on the wall here.

Dalvin Cook, Minnesota Vikings

The Vikings could have designated Adam Thielen as a post June 1 cut candidate but instead opted to eat that full cap hit this year. With Thielen, they must have realized there was no market to trade him but, with Dalvin Cook, my guess is they are holding out until after June 1 (you have to wait until after June 1 for trade benefits). If they trade him before the first of next month, they would have a $6.2 million hit with $7.9 million in savings but waiting allows them to split that number and save $11 million in 2023. There have been rumors that they might part ways and they even recently changed their Twitter banner to one without him featured.

Austin Ekeler, Los Angeles Chargers

As we discussed in the video below, there were rumors that Keenan Allen could be on the move, but then Chargers GM Tom Telesco came out and said that Keenan Allen isn’t going anywhere.

That’s not quite how things have gone down with Ekeler. Essentially what Telesco has said is that they understand Ekeler’s discontent with his contract. He then made it clear that they didn’t WANT to trade, but given his situation they’ve allowed him to speak to other teams about a possible trade. That’s important language. Telesco is basically telling us that they weren’t shopping him yet the contract situation might not work out so it’s not off the table that he gets moved. The trade isn’t really about the $1.5 million dead cap or the $6.25 million cap space but it’s more like the DeAndre Hopkins trade from Houston to Arizona where the player doesn’t want to play without more money. Ekeler was not present for the start of voluntary workouts on Monday.

Denver Broncos Pass Catchers

Honestly, there has been so much smoke here that I wouldn’t be surprised to see any of them moved. It’s been widely reported that both Jerry Jeudy and Courtland Sutton were not only shopped, but garnered interest from multiple teams. The Broncos didn’t get the return they wanted but that doesn’t mean it’s off the table. Sean Payton also made lukewarm comments about Greg Dulcich before bringing in his buddies Adam Trautman and Chris Manhertz from New Orleans. Then they decided to take a wide receiver in Marvin Mims in the third round. So now the Broncos are building an offense that uses a blocking tight end AND a fullback with Courtland Sutton, Jerry Jeudy, Tim Patrick, Marvin Mims, KJ Hamler, Greg Dulcich, Albert Okwuegbunam, etc. all on the roster. Could be really thin in terms of snaps if no one gets moved.

Ryan Tannehill and Derrick Henry, Tennesee Titans

There have been rumors on both and, if one goes, they should probably both go. You can move forward with a core of Will Levis, Treylon Burks, Chigoziem Okonkwo, Tyjae Spears, etc. but there is no reason running a 30-year-old Derrick Henry into the ground with a rookie QB and Ryan Tannehill probably isn’t going to win you a whole lot without the help of Henry. Certainly, something to keep an eye on as there are teams that would be better immediately with both players.