The NFL salary cap has been increasing every season, and it will continue to do so in 2019, rising to $188.2 million for the upcoming campaign.
Last season, the salary cap was $177.2 million, so this is an increase of exactly $11 M.
The top three teams with the most cap space include the Indianapolis Colts ($106.4M), New York Jets ($96.3M), and the Houston Texans ($80.9M).
We've already seen teams such as the Arizona Cardinals make a flurry of moves before the start of free agency. They signed Robert Alford, Charles Clay, Brooks Reed, and Tanner Vallejo in preparation for the 2019 season.
This cap increase should help teams such as the Dallas Cowboys, Houston Texans, and the Seattle Seahawks to extend DeMarcus Lawrence, Jadeveon Clowney, and Frank Clark to long-term contracts, respectively.
With big name players such as Le'Veon Bell, Nick Foles, Ndamukong Suh, and Earl Thomas scheduled to become free agents, the increase in cap space will most definitely be beneficial to the teams that intend to pursue them.
Although all teams benefited from the cap increase, the Jaguars and Eagles are still at the bottom. Expect many teams in the next few weeks to restructure contracts and release players to free up my cap space for free agency.
With the salary cap going up and the cap roll overs from the previous season, there will be a lot of big and aggressive contract offers. Free agency officially begins on March 13th at 4 p.m. EST, and teams will be allowed to negotiate with players two days before the new league year starts.
This should be one of the most interesting offseasons in NFL history.