The NFL salary cap is going up; here’s what it means for the Broncos
Feb 19, 2025, 12:53 PM | Updated: 8:13 pm
The NFL salary cap is moving on up — as usual for almost every year.
According to a report from ESPN’s Dan Graziano, NFL teams were informed Wednesday that the salary cap for 2025 would land somewhere between $277.5 million and $281.5 million.
This would come in behind the cap increase from last year, when it soared by a league-record $30.6 million. If it comes in on the low end of the increase from the 2024 figure of $255.4 million, it would be the third-highest increase in NFL history; if the cap ends up being at least $281.1 million, it will be the second-highest.
On a percentage basis, the salary cap increase will rank somewhere between the fifth- and seventh-highest year-to-year bump.
WHAT WILL THE BRONCOS SALARY CAP BE?
Whatever figure it ends up being, you can add $1,911,639 to it. That is the amount of space left for the Broncos after the 2024 season. All remaining salary-cap space can be carried over from one year to the next.
Denver ranks 28th in salary-cap carryover. Only the New York Jets, Carolina Panthers, New York Giants and Buffalo Bills will have less to carry into 2025.
This would put the Broncos’ effective cap at between $279,411,639 and $283,411,639, per salary cap data posted by the NFLPA.
This would leave the Broncos at between $38,936,255 and $42,936,255 in salary-cap space, per data from OvertheCap.com, which has the Broncos at $240,475,384 of cap commitments for 2025.
The Broncos currently sit 16th in the NFL in salary cap space — and ninth among the 14 playoff teams from last season.
Denver currently has the fifth-highest dead-money hit in the NFL, thanks mostly to the $32 million dead-money hit for Russell Wilson in 2025.
But with other teams expected to make cuts and the Broncos roster relatively lacking in potential huge dead-money cuts, Denver should drop in the dead-money rankings prior to the new league year.
