The NFL has yet to finalize the salary cap for the 2026 season, but NFL Network’s Tom Pelissero is reporting that the limit is expected to land between $301.2 million and $305.7 million.
If the salary cap
indeed lands between those projected numbers, it would mark the second year in a row that the NFL has exceeded expert projections, as most anticipated the amount to fall short of $300M. Last offseason, the NFL projected the salary cap to land between $277.5M and $281.5M, and the final number for 2025 landed nearly dead in the middle at $279.2M.
At a minimum, that means the salary cap will increase by at least $22M from last season. While that may seem like a significant jump, it closely matches the average increase in salary cap that we’ve seen since the COVID pandemic.
Here’s a look at how the salary cap has changed over the last decade:
- 2016: $155.27M
- 2017: $167M
- 2018: $177.2M
- 2019: $188.2M
- 2020: $198.2M
- 2021: $182.5M (No fan attendance due to COVID restrictions)
- 2022: $208.2M (increase of $25.7M)
- 2023: $224.8M ($16.6M)
- 2024: $255.4M ($30.6M
- 2025: $279.2M ($23.8M)
- 2026: est. $301.2M – $305.7M
As for what this means for the Detroit Lions, it will give them a bit more flexibility in making roster decisions, but overall, an additional $5M to $10M over what was anticipated isn’t going to change things dramatically.
At this stage of the offseason, the Lions are still projected to be roughly $5M to $10M OVER the salary cap allotment. However, the NFL still has to factor in teams’ rollover salary cap from 2025, as well as make any adjustments based on contract bonuses, factoring in things like “not likely to be earned” (NLTBE) and “per-game” bonuses. Once these updates are factored in, the Lions could see their salary cap spending increase by another $20M—which would put them in cap compliance but leave little to spend in free agency and the NFL Draft.
While this may seem troubling, it’s worth noting that there are currently 12 other NFL teams that are also projected to be over the salary cap, including every team in the NFC North. That’s why most beat writers and salary cap experts are projecting the Lions to still work on restructuring some of their existing contracts in order to create more salary cap space in 2026.
We’ll have more information available at Pride of Detroit as rollover amounts and adjustment numbers become available ahead of the League’s new year, which is set to take place on March 11, 2026.
