English
Español
It’s about time.
With less than two weeks to go before the NFL officially begins its 2026 year, the league has finally settled on a base salary cap number. According to multiple media reports, the league has decided upon $301.2 million as the base cap for the upcoming season.
That number is on the low end of most projections. In late January, the range of expected numbers on the cap went from $301.2 million to $305.7 million — a difference of $4.5 million that accounted for about 1.5% of the overall cap. Today’s number comes in at the very bottom of that expected range, giving teams just a bit less financial wiggle room than if it had landed in the middle or upper section of the range.
Still, this year’s cap is an increase of $22 million in raw dollars over last year’s $279.2 million number, or a jump of 7.9%. That also equates to a jump of about $45 million over the last two years combined and a bump of $93 million since 2022, when the value was just $208.2 million.
That steady increase is worth keeping in mind when seeing players’ salaries continuing to skyrocket around the league, particularly in free agency. Quarterbacks are regularly hitting upwards of $50 million annually, pass-rushers are in the $40 million range, and wide receivers are above $30 million, numbers that would have been unthinkable just five years ago, but as a percentage of the salary cap those numbers are not terribly out of line from the salaries in the 2010s.
In addition to setting the top number that each team can hit this season, the finalization of the cap number also means that franchise and transition tag numbers, along with restricted free agent tender values are also set. The RFA tender increases at the same rate as the cap, with a right of first refusal tender set to be roughly $3.5 million for 2026. Franchise and transition tag tenders use a calculation that involves a percentage of the 2026 cap, and those numbers should be finalized soon, but they should be within a percent or so of the projected values published by Overthecap.com.
As for the Green Bay Packers, the team is projected to be a few million over the cap when the league year begins if it makes no moves between now and then. Elgton Jenkins is widely expected to be released, however, which would make the team cap solvent for the offseason by removing about $18.5 million from the cap. Keep in mind that during the offseason, only the 51 highest-value contracts count towards the salary cap; only once final cuts are made after training camp does the entire roster apply against the cap.