NFL Salary Cap Raised To $177.2M Per Team For 2018 Season

The NFL’s salary cap has been set at $177.2 million per team in 2018, up from $167 million last year, the league announced Monday.

NFL 2018 per-team salary cap news

The calculation was made using the league’s revenue. This marks the fifth straight year the salary cap has increased by at least $10 million. The 6.11 percent increase is the smallest percent increase for the cap from year to year since the 1.99 percent jump in 2013.

The cap increase could have been higher, but a new $1.5 million per-team veteran performance bonus tool was added.

However, since 2013 the cap has risen more than $54 million, from $123 million to $177.2 million, a whopping increase of 44.1 percent.

There is an exception regarding the salary cap and the numbers for franchise tag designations for players franchised for a second consecutive year.

Every four years, NFL teams must spend at least 89 percent of their cap space in cash in order to avoid a CBA violation.

Free agency begins March 14th, with the start of the NFL’s new league year. Teams that are over the cap must clear salary by that date. Three teams are currently over the cap: The Philadelphia Eagles ($11,210,390 over), Miami Dolphins ($8,874,165 over) and Kansas City Chiefs ($3,285,981 over).

The annual league meetings between team owners will be held from March 25 to 28 in Orlando, Florida.

PHILADELPHIA, PA – DECEMBER 13: Mychal Kendricks #95 and Walter Thurmond #26 of the Philadelphia Eagles tackle Chris Hogan #15 of the Buffalo Bills at Lincoln Financial Field on December 13, 2015 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. (Photo by Elsa/Getty Images)