We are now beyond the first day of June. That means teams can now save more cap space when cutting or trading a player, paving the way for a potential uptick in activity throughout the league.

When players are cut or traded, the team takes on all future prorated money and salary guarantees as dead cap. And, prior to June 1, all of that dead cap is absorbed in the upcoming season.

However, any player released with a post-June 1 designation or traded on June 2 or later will have any future prorations pushed to the following season rather than the current season. The guarantees would still accelerate into the upcoming season. This obviously gives teams more cap relief in the upcoming season.

When the Jets cut Aaron Rodgers, they did so with a post-June 1 designation. Instead of taking on all the dead cap at once, according to Spotrac, they will take on $14 million of dead cap in 2025 and $35 million in 2026.

Players cannot be traded with a post-June 1 designation, which explains why we haven't seen the Steelers replace George Pickens just yet. The Steelers traded Pickens so close to June 1, it made little sense for any potential suitor to make a trade prior to June 1 when they can save cap space by waiting several days.

The Saints are a good example of a team that could benefit from any trade after June 1. There might not be a team with a worse cap situation than the Saints, so any move they make has to benefit their cap. Let's say the rumors of the Steelers being interested in Chris Olave are 100% true. If the Saints were to have traded him prior to June 1, they would have lost $15.49 million in cap space in 2025, which benefits them in no way other than the return they'd get in the trade. However, trading Olave now will save them $6.31 million in cap space.

With June 1 in the past, any trade talks should ramp up. It doesn't mean we'll see a deal done today or tomorrow. Negotiations are difficult to predict. But now, teams should be more open for business.