The Winter Olympics in Italy have come to a close, but the underwear Olympics are underway in Indianapolis, where NFL teams are digging through measurements and reviewing player interviews in order to build out their draft board ahead of the 2026 NFL Draft. Before the draft arrives, however, free agency will see dozens of notable players change allegiances, as teams attempt to fix holes in the roster and make the additions that will push them to the point of competitiveness.
For the World Champion
Seattle Seahawks, that means figuring out how to handle the handful of pending unrestricted free agents, including the likes of Ken Walker, Rashid Shaheed and a big chunk of the secondary in Tariq Woolen, Coby Bryant and Josh Jobe. Now, with the start of free agency less than two weeks away and the legal tampering period right around the corner, teams have been made aware where the salary cap will land for the 2026 season.
With the cap coming in at $301.2M, it’s a little below where many experts had been estimating. Specifically, OverTheCap.com has been using a 2026 cap estimate of $303.5M, which means the cap landing at $301.2M results in the cap space estimate produced by the site being $2.3M high. That means that, as of publication, OTC shows Seattle with $61.9M in total cap space and $58.7M of effective cap space, the true numbers will drop ever so slightly to $59.6M of total cap space and $56.4M of effective cap space.
Those numbers, of course, do not include any cap costs for the team to retain its exclusive rights or restricted free agents, but affords John Schneider and Mike Macdonald more than enough room to make the moves necessary for the Seahawks to set themselves up to compete for yet another Lombardi.
