💰 Salary Cap 101
How NFL teams build winners within the hard cap
💰
Cap Basics
The salary cap is a hard limit on how much a team can spend on player salaries in a season.
Every NFL team must stay under the salary cap — a number set by the league each year based on league revenue. In 2024, the cap was $255.4 million. No team can go over it.
The cap creates parity. Unlike baseball, a billionaire owner can't just outspend everyone. Every team starts with the same ceiling, making roster construction a true skill.
2024 Salary Cap
$255.4M
Minimum Player Salary
$795K (rookie)
Average NFL Salary
~$3.3M
Teams Over Cap Get
Penalized & forced to cut players