10 WRs Who Could Be Cut in 2024

Photo: Gary A. Vasquez, USA Today Sports

Wide receivers who, despite currently being under contract for 2024, are candidates to be cut before next season begins. Understanding the risks and opportunities of the 10 wide receivers below is important.

Related -- see wide receivers who should be free agents before the 2024 season >>>

Amari Cooper, Cleveland

Amari Cooper will turn 29 in June and has two seasons left on his current contract. Cooper could be an extension candidate or a cut candidate depending on his 2023 performance. Cooper is due 23.8 million dollars in 2024, and the team could save 12.4 million by cutting him. Notably, Cooper has void years on his current contract with 7.6 million in dead cap hit in 2024 without him under contract. The team could use an extension to smooth out his cap hits projected to be on his void year in 2025. Cleveland does not have a clear route to a WR1 replacement of Cooper, with Deshaun Watson on an expensive contract and no first-round pick in 2024.

Allen Robinson, Pittsburgh

Allen Robinson signed a three-year, 46.5-million-dollar contract with the Rams in 2022 and was a major disappointment. The Rams then traded Robinson to Pittsburgh in a deal that exchanged seventh-round picks before Robinson re-negotiated his contract to a two-year, 15-million-dollar deal. Robinson has no guaranteed money left in his contract after this season, and the Steelers could save 10 million of his 11.9-million-dollar cap hit in 2024 by cutting him. Robinson’s contract with Pittsburgh is a low-cost and low-risk investment for a player who is coming off back-to-back disappointing seasons.

Diontae Johnson, Pittsburgh

Another wide receiver in the Pittsburgh depth chart is Diontae Johnson, who signed a two-year, 36.7-million-dollar contract extension in 2022. Johnson was the subject of some offseason trade rumors, but nothing of substance materialized, leaving Johnson as the leader of the wide receiver corps entering 2023. Johnson will count 15.8 million against the cap in 2024, and the team could save 10 million in cap space by cutting him. Johnson has no guaranteed salary left on his contract after 2023, so he would be a candidate for an extension or cut in 2024, depending on his performance in 2023. Johnson has 144, 169, and 147 targets in the past three seasons. Besides Johnson, Stefon Diggs and Davante Adams are the only other receivers with 140 or more targets in each of the past three years.

Courtland Sutton and Tim Patrick, Denver

Courtland Sutton had a disappointing 2022 season in Russell Wilson’s first year in Denver. Sutton managed only 64 receptions, 829 receiving yards, and two touchdowns in his WR43 finish in season-long points. Sutton and Jerry Jeudy were each the subject of offseason trade rumors, but to date, both have been retained by Denver. Denver drafted Marvin Mims in the second round of the 2023 NFL Draft, creating a logjam with Sutton, Jeudy, and Tim Patrick. Sutton has no guaranteed money in his contract after the 2023 season, and the team could save nearly 9.7 million of his 17.3-million-dollar cap hit in 2024.

Tim Patrick signed a three-year, 30-million-dollar contract in 2021. The 2024 campaign will be the final season on his contract when he will have a cap hit of nearly 13 million. The Broncos could save 9.9 million in cap space by cutting him.

With Jeudy still on his rookie contract and scheduled to play the 2024 season on his fifth-year option, the team has the feeling of being too wide receiver heavy with their contracts, making Sutton and/or Patrick major cut candidates if Jeudy is not traded.