NFL increases salary cap to $279.2M for 2025 season
 

https://x.com/TomPelissero/status/1895171736213299289

https://x.com/spotrac/status/1895176161338003875

https://x.com/spotrac/status/1895179478919458826


Cap numbers over the years:

2011: $120.4MM
2012: $120.6MM
2013: $123.6MM
2014: $133MM
2015: $143.3MM
2016: $155.3MM
2017: $167MM
2018: $177.2MM
2019: $188.2MM
2020: $198.2MM
2021: $182.5MM
2022: $208.2MM
2023: $224.8MM
2024: $255.4MM
2025: $279.2MM

It seems the salary cap has benefitted everyone.

awesome


some extra cash we won't spend

Ballard has almost always spent the cap space.

From Spotrac, here are the amounts the Colts spent by year vs baseline cap:

2024: $250.3 ($255.4 was baseline cap)
2023: $223.9 ($224.8)
2022: $205.8 ($208.2)
2021: $187.3 ($182.5)
2020: $231.4 ($198.2)

that doesn't seem right to me for some reason


weren't we sitting on cap space just last year or am I just imagining it.

We carried over about $10m but not that much.

o


Sometimes, perception differs from reality.

o

That was the popular trope of Ballard haters, but it has been proven false every time. Yes, we start the offseason with a lot of cap money, but we also started every one of them with a lot of free agents to replace. The cap space we have every year is always a mirage. Most teams with a lot of space have a lot of expiring contracts, or a dearth of talent.

So I gave the baseline cap numbers above, not the adjusted cap number.

As sherck points out above, any unused cap carries over and is added to the following year - the owner does not pocket the money. So each team essentially has their own cap number for any given year.

Another way to look at it is to see how much cap is left per year to be carried over. And there are reasons to have a little cap space left - for example, playing time and performance incentives count against the cap, so a little extra cap space may open up if the incentive conditions are not met.

Again, from Spotrac, below are the carryover numbers for each of the last 5 years and where it ranks among the league.

2024: $10.1M (12th)
2023: $6.4M (11th)
2022: $6.6M (6th)
2021: $2.4M (15th)
2020: $8.3M (13th)

The Colts restructured Kenny Moore's contract to open up a little more cap space this year:

https://x.com/Jason_OTC/status/1976316460390838512

https://x.com/mchappell51/status/1976320609606082917