How the NFL salary cap works
The 2026 NFL salary cap is $301.2M per team. Here is how it works, in plain words.
- 2026 cap
- $301.2M
- 2025 cap
- $279.2M
- Up since 2021
- 65%
- Rookie minimum
- $885K
Looking for Hizzle's salary cap fantasy game? That's Cap Space. This page is about the real NFL cap.
The cap in one minute
- Every team gets the same cap: $301.2M in 2026. It's a hard cap: a team can't go over it, not even for a day.
- It's set each year from league revenue. Under the 2020 labor deal, players get about 48% of all league revenue.
- What counts against it isn't the cash a player is paid this year. It's his cap hit, and bonuses get spread across the years of his deal.
- Teams can move money between years: restructures push it later, void years stretch it out, and unused space rolls over. That's why one team can look broke while another has $80M to spend.
What a cap hit is made of
| Piece | How it counts |
|---|---|
| Base salary | Counts in the year it's paid. Paid weekly during the season. |
| Signing bonus | Paid up front in cash, but spread evenly over the contract, up to five years. A $40M bonus on a five-year deal counts $8M a year. |
| Roster and workout bonuses | Count in the year they're earned. |
| Incentives | "Likely to be earned" ones (he hit the mark last year) count now. "Not likely" ones only count if he earns them, and then they land on next year's cap. |
Dead money
Dead money is cap charge for someone who's no longer on the team. The bonus was already paid, so when a player is cut or traded, every year of bonus that hadn't counted yet lands on the cap at once.
Example
A player signs for four years with a $20M signing bonus and a $10M base salary each year. His bonus counts $5M a year, so his cap hit is $15M.
| Cut after year 2 | Dead money this year | Next year | Cap saved this year |
|---|---|---|---|
| Before June 1 | $10M | $0 | $5M |
| After June 1 (or named a post-June 1 cut) | $5M | $5M | $10M |
Guaranteed base salary he's still owed also counts as dead money. Before June 1, a team can name up to two players as post-June 1 cuts; the savings show up on June 2.
How teams make room
- Restructure
- Turn base salary into a signing bonus. The player gets the same money, sooner. The team spreads it over the remaining years, so this year's hit drops and later years go up.
- Void years
- Fake years added to the end of a deal so a bonus can be spread over five years. When they void, whatever bonus is left becomes dead money.
- Extension
- Add years and a new bonus. The bonus spreads over more seasons, which can lower this year's hit.
- Cut or trade
- Saves the player's cap hit minus any dead money it creates.
- Rollover
- Unused space carries into next year. Teams also have to pay out at least 89% of the cap in cash over set multi-year periods, so they can't sit on space forever.
The top 51 rule
From the start of the league year until the season starts, only a team's 51 biggest cap hits count, plus dead money. Rosters are 90 deep in the summer and most of them won't make the team. Once the season starts, everyone counts: the 53-man roster, the practice squad and injured players.
Free agents: who can leave
It depends on accrued seasons. A player earns one for each season he was on full pay status for six or more regular-season games.
| When his deal ends | What happens |
|---|---|
| Unrestricted (4+ seasons) | He can sign anywhere. |
| Restricted (3 seasons) | His team can make a tender offer. Other teams can make offer sheets; his team can match, or take draft pick compensation if the tender was a first or second round tender. |
| Exclusive rights (under 3) | If his team offers a one-year minimum deal, he can't talk to anyone else. |
Franchise and transition tags
Each team can use one tag a year on a player who's about to be a free agent. It's a one-year deal, fully guaranteed.
- Exclusive franchise tag
- About the average of the top five salaries at his position, or 120% of his last salary if that's more. No other team can talk to him.
- Non-exclusive franchise tag
- Other teams can make offers. His team can match, or let him go for two first-round picks.
- Transition tag
- About the average of the top ten at his position. His team can match any offer but gets nothing if it doesn't.
Tagging the same player again costs 120% of his last tag; a third time costs even more, so teams rarely do it.
Minimum salaries
| Credited seasons | 2026 | 2027 |
|---|---|---|
| 0 | $885,000 | $930,000 |
| 1 | $1,005,000 | $1,050,000 |
| 2 | $1,075,000 | $1,120,000 |
| 3 | $1,145,000 | $1,190,000 |
| 4-6 | $1,215,000 | $1,260,000 |
| 7+ | $1,300,000 | $1,345,000 |
Key dates
- Trade deadlineLast day to trade players until the new league year.
- Franchise and transition tag window opensTeams can tag one player each.
- Tag deadlineLast day to use a franchise or transition tag.
- Free agent negotiating window (expected)Teams can talk to other teams' free agents. No signing yet.
- New league year: free agency and trades open (expected)Signings and trades become official. 2027 contracts count from here.
- Restricted free agent offer sheet deadlineLast day for RFAs to sign offer sheets with other teams.
- NFL Draft (expected)April 29 to May 1.
Times are 4 pm Eastern unless noted. The league confirms the offseason calendar each winter.
NFL salary cap by year
| Season | Cap per team | Change |
|---|---|---|
| 2026 | $301.2M | +$22.0M |
| 2025 | $279.2M | +$23.8M |
| 2024 | $255.4M | +$30.6M |
| 2023 | $224.8M | +$16.6M |
| 2022 | $208.2M | +$25.7M |
| 2021 | $182.5M | -$15.7M |
| 2020 | $198.2M |
2021 dropped because of lost 2020 revenue during the pandemic.
Questions
- What is the NFL salary cap in 2026?
- The 2026 NFL salary cap is $301.2M per team, up from $279.2M in 2025. It is the most a team can count against its cap for player pay in one league year.
- What is a cap hit?
- A player's cap hit is what he counts against the cap this year: his base salary, his signing bonus spread over the years of the deal, roster and workout bonuses, and incentives he's likely to earn.
- What is dead money?
- Dead money is cap charge for a player who is no longer on the team. Signing bonus money already paid but not yet counted moves onto the cap when he is cut or traded.
- What is a post-June 1 cut?
- When a team cuts a player after June 1, or names him a post-June 1 cut, only this year's share of his bonus counts this year. The rest moves to next year, so the team saves more cap space now.
- How does the franchise tag work?
- A team can tag one player who would be a free agent. He gets a one-year deal worth about the average of the top five salaries at his position, or 120% of his last salary if that's more.
- Can teams carry over unused cap space?
- Yes. A team can roll unused cap space into the next year. That is why some teams have more than the league cap to spend.
- What is the NFL minimum salary in 2026?
- $885K for a rookie, rising with credited seasons to $1.300M for a player with seven or more.
Sources: NFL.com (the 2026 cap), the 2020 collective bargaining agreement (minimum salaries, tags, free agency rules) and the NFL calendar. Talk it over in NFL Talk.
Schedule and scores: nflverse. Picks: the Sim, Hizzle's own model. Power rankings: Buck Kincaid. Times are Central. Not affiliated with the NFL.