The 2022 NFL season is officially over. The 2023 offseason can begin.
There are currently more than 700 veteran players set to hit free agency this spring. Several more names will join that list as team make cuts to clear out salary cap space. Others will be crossed out as they sign lucrative contract extensions or wind up placed under the franchise tag by teams uninterested in losing them.
We don’t know who will land where, but we do know who the major players will be. After a second straight rebuilding year the Chicago Bears are primed to add major talent thanks to a league-high $94 million in cap space, per Over The Cap’s estimations. We also know veteran heavy teams like the New Orleans Saints and Tampa Bay Buccaneers, each set adrift without quarterback solutions, will have to undergo so major restructuring just to get under 2023’s $224.8 million spending limit.
Here’s how each team clocks in when it comes to offseason salary cap space, per OTC. We’ll also include the team’s effective cap space, which takes into account the money needed to roster each club’s upcoming rookie class and pad out its roster to 51 players.