Every NFL team’s salary cap space at the start of the 2022 preseason

Most of 2022’s top veteran free agents have been off the open market for months. That doesn’t mean NFL teams don’t still need salary cap space.

The league’s hard-capped spending limit is the tool that ensures parity reigns across most of pro football. This fall, teams are limited to $208.2 million in payments for current and former players. Some franchises maxed that out early. Others spent chunks of the spring restructuring contracts and clearing out veterans in order to limbo under the cap. And others have patiently waited, holding cash for difference makers who may never arrive.

There’s still time to make key additions, whether that’s picking through the limited crop of remaining available players on the open market or swinging a trade for an impact veteran on a team that no longer needs him. That’s where the Cleveland Browns, with more than $48 million in estimated cap space, have effectively lapped the competition. No one else in the NFL has more than $23 million left to spend in 2022.

Let’s look where each team stands when it comes to the salary cap now that training camps are in full swing across the league. All numbers are courtesy of the extremely valuable Over the Cap, which also features in-depth team-by-team breakdowns if you’re looking for more detail.

This list also includes a look at each team’s dead cap space, which is the money currently devoted to players who are no longer on the roster. That’s not vital, but it does shed a little light on why the Chicago Bears have failed to build around Justin Fields this offseason ($57 million in dead space!).