Heading into Week 1 of the 2026 regular season, how much salary cap space do Chris Ballard and the Indianapolis Colts have to work with in the coming months?
According to Over the Cap, the Colts have $19.026 million in available cap space, which ranks as the eighth-most in the NFL.
Throughout the offseason, the Colts have consistently been one of the better-positioned teams from a salary cap perspective. In part, that is a product of moving on from Michael Pittman, which freed up$24 million in cap space for the 2026 season.
So with that amount of space, the Colts certainly have the flexibility to further tweak their roster. That said, it's not as if any free-agent additions are going to break the bank at this time of the year, and I'm not sure
how aggressive Ballard would be in pursuing any potential trades, given that the Colts are already without their 2027 first-round pick after acquiring Sauce Gardner last season.
A portion of the Colts' allotted cap space was recently utilized to assemble the practice squad. In-season cap space is also needed to absorb the additional cap costs that come with elevating players on a weekly basis from the practice squad.
Overall, the Colts are in a good spot cap-wise, and any unused cap space in 2026 can be rolled over to the 2027 offseason.
Indianapolis Colts' 5 largest salary cap hits in 2026
- DT DeForest Buckner: $26.6M
- G Quenton Nelson: $24.2M
- CB Charvarius Ward: $19.8M
- QB Daniel Jones: $19.18M
- RB Jonathan Taylor: $16.18M
This article originally appeared on Colts Wire: Colts salary cap outlook heading into Week 1 of 2026 regular season
