NFL Raises the Cap 💰

02/26/2024

By: Jeff Yoder

NFL Increases Salary Cap $30.6 Million to $255.4 Million (Per Team) in 2024

The best news of the weekend for NFL teams, fans and players (heck, everybody!) was the league’s announcement of the new salary cap number. The NFL announced on Friday that the 2024 season cap will rise $30.6 million per team to a whopping $255.4 million. That’s a record-setting 13.6 percent increase over last year’s cap, by far the most the league has ever seen year over year. Most teams had positioned themselves for an expected increase into the $240-245 million range. The beauty here is that everyone’s a winner.

The Big(gest) Winners

Franchises struggling to keep an expensive core roster together just got a huge boost. And if that’s your team, you’re happy, too. That includes teams like the Buccaneers — trying to salvage contracts for WR Mike Evans and QB Baker Mayfield — or teams like the 49ers, Eagles and Ravens preparing to try and keep rosters with upcoming high-contract demands. Plenty of other teams just found themselves in position to make a run at free agents who they might’ve previously considered to be too expensive. The other big winner? Anyone who’s about to be a free agent. Cuh-ching!

Reasons for the Major Increase

Part of the reasoning for the massive increase in 2024 is because the league has paid back player benefits deferred in 2020 during the COVID-19 pandemic. The NFL spent the 2021-22 seasons recovering the 2020 losses. Now, they’re free of those recovery years, and the 2023 media revenue went through the roof. So all of the Peacock paywalls and Amazon Prime games could’ve just helped your team land a better free-agent. Pros and cons, I guess.

Forbes: $30 Million Salary Cap Increase Gives Added Meaning to FA Signings

Yahoo! Sports: League Executives Weigh In on What NFL Salary Cap Increase Really Means

Photo: Jacob Kupferman / Getty Images