What does the Detroit Lions cap space and dead money situation look like for 2023?

Now that the calendar has flipped to June, where do the Detroit Lions stand in terms of cap space and dead money for 2023?

After carrying big dead money from trading Matthew Stafford in 2021, the Detroit Lions carried far less last year even if they ate a lot of money to cut Trey Flowers. If not for some moves made this offseason, they'd really have no dead money in 2023.

Right now, according to Over The Cap, the Lions have the fifth-most salary cap space in the league ($23,721,793). Not that there are many, if any, players they could sign who would consume a large chunk of that. But it's nice to have that kind of wiggle room. If they really want DeAndre Hopkins, they can probably afford him.

Trades of Jeff Okudah and D'Andre Swift quickly trended toward happening this offseason, as the Lions simply were done with them. If that canme with a little money pain, so be it. They even covered a piece of Okudah's 2023 salary to facilitate his trade to the Falcons.

What is the Detroit Lions dead money situation for 2023?

Also via Over The Cap, the Lions have just shy of $18.7 million ($18,690,639) in dead money for 2023 right now. Here's the breakdown of most of that money, encompassed in five players.

Jeff Okudah - $6,986,095
DJ Chark - $5,976,667
Michael Brockers - $3,975,000
D'Andre Swift - $942,530
C.J. Moore $700,000

The void year the Lions tacked onto Chark's one-year deal last offseason leaves them carrying more dead money attached to his name than the Carolina Panthers will pay him this year on another one-year deal ($5 million).

The Lions sit around the middle of the league in dead money right now (via Over The Cap), coming in 15th in the league going from lowest to highest.

So the 2023 Lions cap space situation can't be much better than it is right now. Their dead money situation could be better, but it could be a whole lot worse and the players they parted with had no place on a rising team. All in all, not a bad place to be on the balance sheet with the brunt of offseason activity over.