Our cap situation is improved by $3.7m in 2023 as compared to keeping Smith (according to Miguel). The dead money just reflects prepaid bonus money - we owned that cap impact whether he stayed or left.
The 2024 cap impact is reduced by another $12-18m (everyone's saying 18, but I think it might be only 12). This can impact FA right now, as we can push that much more into 2024 to make room for signings now.
Plus we get a 7th round pick, #25 of the 7th round I believe, and we previously didn't have a 7th rounder.
So all in all, this was a pretty good exit from a really bad contract.
The Atlanta HC was the OC at Tenn where Smith had his best days, so Smith was willing to renegotiate the rest of his contract to revive his career there. That's the main reason this deal happened in a way where we could dump all of his remaining contractual salary.