Great NFL franchises pay excellent players fair-market salaries (or less) to help them win championships. Not-so-great NFL franchises pay ordinary players premium salaries to help them stay competitive.
The weakest NFL franchises pay their former players top dollar to play for other teams. And even recently-successful franchises have fallen into that trap.
In the latest of these "dead money" episodes, the Dolphins traded longtime starting quarterback Ryan Tannehill and a future draft pick to the Titans last week for a pair of draft picks. The trade leaves the Dolphins on the hook for $18.4 million that cannot be used to improve the roster this season.