The NFL salary cap and a team’s salary cap space are much-debated areas because, like many things in life, they are not an issue until they are. For the most part, teams are excellent at navigating the salary cap, which can make it seem irrelevant at times. However, we have seen teams struggle to remain competitive when the salary cap prevents them from being able to retain players or sign marquee free agents.
All salary cap data for the 32 teams in the table above is courtesy of Over the Cap. If you want to simulate how your favorite team should handle its cap space, head over to PFSN’s NFL Offseason Manager.
Which Teams Have the Most Salary Cap Space?
With the meat of NFL free agency and the NFL Draft behind us, most teams find themselves in a fairly stable period regarding their salary cap situation. As things stand, the New England Patriots stand atop the list with the most salary cap space at just over $67 million. It will be intriguing to see if they use that cap space to trade for some potential impact players to put around young quarterback Drake Maye or roll it over into the 2026 season.
Two teams have just over $40 million in cap space: the San Francisco 49ers ($46 million) and the Detroit Lions ($42.3 million).
Just behind them are seven teams with over $30 million in cap space: the Tennessee Titans ($38.2 million), the Las Vegas Raiders ($36.3 million), the Pittsburgh Steelers ($34.1 million), the Arizona Cardinals ($32.1 million), the Dallas Cowboys ($31.9 million), the Seattle Seahawks ($31.2 million), and the Green Bay Packers ($31.1 million).
The information in this section is correct as of May. 14, 2025
Which Teams Have the Least Salary Cap Space?
All 32 NFL teams must now be cap-compliant with their top 51 salary caps until the start of the season, at which point all the players on the roster will count against the salary cap. Some teams are close to the salary cap, with five teams having less than $10 million in cap space. Of those, the two with the least cap space are the New York Giants, $1.1 million, and the Buffalo Bills, $1.8 million.
The other three teams with less than $10 million in cap space are the Atlanta Falcons ($5.0 million), the Chicago Bears ($6.8 million), and the Houston Texans ($9.3 million).
The information in this section is correct as of May. 14, 2025
FAQ
What Is the NFL Salary Cap?
The NFL salary cap system is complicated in many ways, but its basic premise is simple. Each team has a budget for each season, and they cannot go over that budget. If they do, the contract that sent them over is canceled, and they are penalized in some way. Punishments would usually be a monetary fine or a loss of draft picks on top of canceling the contract.
In some aspects, it is not very different than when you were a child with an allowance. Exceed that allowance, and your parents likely told you to put one thing back. The main difference is that they probably didn’t also punish you by taking away something else.
The NFL salary cap is set based on revenue sharing between the NFL and the NFL Players Association and changes each year. The league sets a base value for the cap each season, and teams can roll over money from previous seasons to boost that value.
How Does the NFL Salary Cap Work?
As we discussed above, the league sets a base salary cap for all teams. In 2024, that was $255.4 million, and that was the minimum cap for all 32 teams. Each team then adds on any rolled-over money from the previous season. In essence, this is money that they did not spend against the previous cap. Some further adjustments based on contractual elements are then made to achieve a final number for each team.
The salary cap for players consists of salaries and bonuses. Only the top 51 players count toward the cap during the offseason, but when the season starts, all 53 players on the active roster count toward it. Additionally, any player placed on the injured reserve or the practice squad counts against a team salary cap.
Signing and option bonuses are paid in a lump sum, but their impact on the salary cap can be spread up to four years. So a player receiving a $25 million signing bonus gets all that money immediately, but only $5 million a year would count towards the cap in each year of a five-year contract.
Salary is paid weekly, and all of a player’s salary is counted on their cap. Players earn a minimum salary based on the number of seasons they have “accrued” in their career, and, in theory, there is no maximum salary a player can be paid.
Per-game bonuses and incentives also count against the salary cap. How much they count against the cap in a single year is dependent on various factors. Any incentives considered “likely to be earned” count against the cap in that year, and if the player does not reach the threshold, the team pays back the incentives in the form of cap credits as part of cap adjustments.
Any incentives considered “not likely to be earned” do not count against the cap in that year. If the player reaches the threshold, they count against the team's salary cap the following year in the form of cap adjustments.
What is Active Cap and Dead Money
Active cap spending is anything a team spends on a player’s current contract. In contrast, dead money is anything a team still owes on a canceled or voided contract.
For example, a player paid a $25 million signing bonus on a five-year deal and earning a $5 million salary in that season would have an active cap number of $10 million in that year. However, if the team were to cut that player after that first year, the $20 million that had not counted against the cap would be considered dead money in Year 2.