The salary cap is, in a nutshell, the amount of money teams can put into contracts for the season they’re set for. In 2022, that number is set at $208.2 million. That number is a $25.7 million increase from 2021, which marked the first time since the cap was instituted in 1994 that the salary cap decreased ($182.5 million, down from $198.2 million in 2020). The reason for the drastic drop in 2021 was because of lost revenue due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
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How is the NFL salary cap calculated?
The salary cap is calculated by dividing a percentage of revenues determined by the CBA by 32. Under the current CBA, players get 48 percent of revenue sharing profits, meaning that revenue sharing was at $433.755 million heading into the 2022 offseason. This figure generally goes up from year to year, with the exception of 2020 heading into 2021 and an uncapped year in 2010 that bridged a $3 million downswing from 2009 to 2011.
NFL salary cap deadline 2022
NFL teams can still place the franchise tag on players through the 4 p.m. ET deadline on March 8. After that, teams will have a week to get their books under the cap. That’s a March 16 deadline, the first day of the new league year.
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NFL salary cap space by team
Here is a list of very NFL team’s spending as of March 7. Numbers courtesy of Field Yates.
What does cap number mean for free agency?
Needless to say, teams with more cap space are going to spend more in free agency. With that in mind, expect teams like the Dolphins, Colts, and Chargers to be very active in free agency. These are teams who were close to the playoffs and are thinking about their next steps. Other teams, like the Bengals and Jaguars, have quarterbacks on their roster they have to consider paying. Although Joe Burrow and Trevor Lawrence are only entering their third and second years, respectively, if all goes well for them they’ll both get paid. The Broncos have been ponying up cap space hoping to land a blue chip quarterback, so look for them to make a big push to front-load a contract to make it more enticing.
Teams will also be making offers under the assumption that the cap will increase again in 2023, as that trend remains fairly consistent. With that in mind, look for teams to make backloaded offers so that the meat of players’ contracts will correspond to a higher cap. While that isn’t a hard and fast rule, it’s the trend NFL free agency has followed.
