The NFL announced on Wednesday that the salary cap is expected to increase by more than $20 million for the 2025 season.
Projections provided to teams around the league suggest that the salary cap will range from $277.5 million to $281.5 million per club, marking a significant increase from the $255.4 million cap that was in place for the 2024 season, per NFL.com.
As a result, the salary cap is expected to increase by a minimum of $22.1 million, with the potential for growth as large as $26.1 million.
Initial projections for the 2025 salary cap, which was provided in December and set at $265 million to $275 million, mean teams will now have much more spending power than expected.
These expectations also mean that the NFL salary cap has increased by at least $100 million since the 2018 season, when teams had $177 million to spend on players, per NFL.com. Additionally, the cap has increased by $53 million in just the last two seasons.
The official salary cap number is expected to be finalized sometime next week, though the league’s release date is unclear, per The Score.
The Dallas Cowboys are one of many teams that could utilize this salary cap increase in the upcoming free agency period, with the potential to clear up nearly $100 million in cap space through various roster moves.
The Cowboys could restructure the contracts of Dak Prescott, Ceedee Lamb, Terence Steele, and Trevon Diggs and re-sign Micah Parsons to a long-term extension, per Law Nation Sports.
While Dallas will likely opt against completing each of these moves over the coming weeks, the team may utilize available contract reconstruction and the increased salary cap to sign a few impactful free agents.