Good news on the salary cap for the Green Bay Packers and other teams needing to be cap compliant by the start of the new league year: the NFL raised the salary cap in 2024 to $255.4 million, a jump of over $30 million from 2023.
The rise is substantial but also much bigger than expected. Salary cap tracking sites such as Over the Cap and Spotrac had cap projections at $242 million. The $255.4 million number is over $13 million more than projections.
The Packers now sit at roughly $8.1 million of cap space, per Over the Cap. While ahead of only nine other teams in terms of cap space, the Packers went from over the cap under previous projections to under the cap under the official cap.
The 2023 salary cap was $224.8 million. The cap is up almost $70 million compared to 2021, the first year following the COVID-19 pandemic.
The Packers still have plenty of salary cap levers capable of being pulled to create more space, including restructures. The team must also fit in a contract extension for Jordan Love, who figures to sign a deal making him one of the NFL’s highest paid quarterbacks this offseason.
How high is the salary cap now? Consider that in 2011, or the year after the Packers won their last Super Bowl, the cap was $120.375 million. It has more than doubled since.