How the Colts are impacted by NFL’s $255.4M salary cap

How the increased salary cap impacts the Colts in 2024.

The NFL announced the salary cap for the 2024 season, increasing an unprecedented $30 million from the previous campaign up to $255.4 million. How will the Indianapolis Colts be impacted?

With this new figure, the Colts now sit at $72.3 million in salary-cap space (sixth-most) and $68.1 million in effective salary-cap space (fifth-most), according to Over The Cap.

The Colts already knew they were entering into the 2024 offseason among the leaders in salary-cap space. However, the figure the league announced Friday is roughly $10 million more than most teams expected to be working with this offseason.

The extra flexibility might be enough to help the Colts sign multiple contract extensions with some big names like Michael Pittman Jr., Kenny Moore II and Grover Stewart—all of which are slated to be unrestricted free agents in March.

The biggest name is Pittman, who is the catalyst for the offense. A contract extension for the team’s WR1 is expected to be above $20 million annually, and the franchise tag numbers are now official with the announcement of the salary cap.

If the Colts wanted to use the non-exclusive franchise tag on Pittman, it would cost them $21.8 million.

It will be interesting to see how this will shake out for the Colts, but the higher salary-cap number should work in their favor to get deals done with their big-name free agents.

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NFL sets 2024 salary cap at record $255.4 million

The NFL set the salary cap at $255.4 million for the 2024 season.

The NFL set the salary cap at $255.4 million for the 2024 season, the league announced Friday.

In what was a $30 million increase from the 2023 season, the NFL said in a release Friday that the unprecedented increase was a result of the repayment from the COVID-19 pandemic.

The NFL announced today that the 2024 Salary Cap will be $255.4 million per club, with an additional $74 million per club payment for player benefits, which includes Performance Based Pay and benefits for retired players. Total 2024 player costs will be $329.4 million per club, or more than $10.5 billion league-wide.

The unprecedented $30 million increase per club in this year’s Salary Cap is the result of the full repayment of all amounts advanced by the clubs and deferred by the players during the Covid pandemic as well as an extraordinary increase in media revenue for the 2024 season.

Considering the Colts were expected to work with something between $242-245 million for the salary cap, this gives them a bit more flexibility when it comes to signing contracts.

According to Over The Cap, the Colts are working with roughly $68.1 million in effective salary-cap space, which ranks as the fifth-highest mark in the NFL.

Though player demands will likely go up given this news, this should make life a bit easier for the front office in terms of contract extensions for the big names set to hit free agency.

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