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With two major deals already happening and a third likely to be finalized soon, it’s time to see where the salary cap sits for all 32 NFL teams before the trade deadline.
The biggest trade so far saw Davante Adams sent to the New York Jets from the Las Vegas Raiders. This was followed by the trade of Amari Cooper from the Cleveland Browns to the Buffalo Bills.
By NFL Network Ian RapoportThe Kansas City Chiefs acquire DeAndre Hopkins from the Tennessee Titans in exchange for a conditional fifth-round pick in the 2025 NFL Draft.
Here’s where each team stands relative to the cap at this point in the season, ranked from greatest to least space:
- San Francisco 49ers: $55.2 million
- Cleveland Browns: $48.2 million
- Las Vegas Raiders: $39.4 million
- New England Patriots: $38.6 million
- Detroit Lions: $36.5 million
- Washington Commanders: $26.7 million
- Arizona Cardinals: $26 million
- Dallas Cowboys: $22.7 million
- Green Bay Packers: $16 million
- New York Jets: $15.7 million
- Jacksonville Jaguars: $15.3 million
- Tennessee Titans: $14.9 million
- Philadelphia Eagles: $14.9 million
- Indianapolis Colts: $14 million
- Minnesota Vikings: $14 million
- Seattle Seahawks: $12.9 million
- Pittsburgh Steelers: $12.6 million
- Los Angeles Chargers: $11.9 million
- Cincinnati Bengals: $10.5 million
- Tampa Bay Buccaneers: $9.1 million
- Carolina Panthers: $8.9 million
- Miami Dolphins: $8.6 million
- Houston Texans: $8.3 million
- Denver Broncos: $7.9 million
- Chicago Bears: $7.7 million
- New York Giants: $7.1 million
- Baltimore Ravens: $5 million
- Atlanta Falcons: $4.7 million
- New Orleans Saints: $4.3 million
- Kansas City Chiefs: $3.8 million
- Buffalo Bills: $3.5 million
- Los Angeles Rams: $2.0 million
Cap numbers via the Roster Management System (h/t ESPN.com)
One thing that was notable about the early wide receiver trades was how teams had to get creative with finances to make deals work for them.
Rapoport noted the Titans will pay $2.5 million of Hopkins’ remaining salary as part of the deal with the Chiefs. This makes sense when you see that the Chiefs rank 30th in cap space and Hopkins has a $3.2 million cap affected.
After Cooper restructured his contract with the Browns during the offseason, the Bills only took one Cap reached $806,667 adding it for the rest of the season.
The Browns will feel the impact of Cooper’s absence next season due to his $22 million-plus liability. This is where their contractual restructuring will benefit them before the start of the 2024 campaign.
In addition to Cooper’s restructuring, the Browns also reworked Deshaun Watson’s August deal. These moves allowed them to have the second-most cap space in the league, which they will use to roll over next year and ease their 2025 cap burden.
The Browns also stand to benefit from additional cap relief following Watson’s season-ending Achilles injury as they have secured at least part of his remaining salary for 2024.
“The credit limit [in 2025] will be a reflection of the payment,” an anonymous source told Yahoo Sports. Charles Robinson. “Or whatever the Browns reveal – if they say anything. I doubt they’ll make it public. Most teams don’t like to talk about insurance policies.”
ESPN Kalyn Kahler noted in September that insurance policies taken out by teams for players with large contracts that eat up a significant portion of the cap have created a loophole for clubs.
Teams will recoup some of the cap space for the following year if the player misses “significant time” due to injury or illness.
Another team that has dealt with a litany of issues also has the most cap space available right now. The San Francisco 49ers have yet to have any luck with Christian McCaffrey on the field, and they will be without Brandon Aiyuk for the rest of the season due to a Torn ACL and MCL suffered during Sunday’s loss to the Chiefs.
Even though conventional wisdom suggests the 49ers use part of their cap space to replace Aiyuk with a marquee receiver, they will likely look to conserve as much cap space as possible for next year when they are should sign Brock Purdy to lucrative extension.
The Niners already have six players should count at least $20 million against the cap in 2025 before factoring in a possible Purdy extension.
Perhaps the most intriguing team heading into the trade deadline is the Washington Commanders. They have the sixth-most cap space available with a rookie quarterback playing at an extremely high level, so they don’t have to worry about him eating up a significant portion of the cap for several years.
Washington could use help on both sides of the ball. The team has a additional 2025 third-round pick to use in a potential deal he got from the Philadelphia Eagles in the Jahan Dotson trade.
Given the level of parity around the NFL this season, it will be interesting to see how many teams decide to sell before the November 5 deadline. There have already been three major deals involving wide receivers, so it wouldn’t be surprising if there was a lot more activity over the next 12 days.
The file for most offers the deadline was 10, two years ago.
