Arizona Cardinals Leave Free Agency’s First Wave in Strong Salary Cap Position

After the opening week of free agency festivities, the Arizona Cardinals still find themselves in great salary cap shape.

The Cardinals, as of publish, have $248.2 million in active cap spending, which ranks 12th in the league. They've spent $87.8 million thus far in free agency, which is middle of the pack.

They're one of eight NFL teams to have signed double-digit players in free agency, though out of those teams they've spent the least amount of money.

In comparison, the Cardinals have signed seven more players than the Seattle Seahawks (5) but have spent only $2 million more than the defending Super Bowl champs.

Quantity doesn't equate to quality, however. When evaluating offensive/defensive players signed or re-signed by Arizona, more of their acquisitions tend to slant more towards depth as opposed to starters.

The Cardinals have tried to build their roster through the draft as opposed to relying on free agency. With seven selections in the upcoming 2026 draft, Arizona will have ample opportunity to do so.

Speaking of the draft, the Cardinals are sixth in the NFL at when it comes to "effective" cap space at $42.6 million, which essentially already takes into account the projected amount of money needed to sign their draft picks.

That projected figure for the Cardinals' draft picks sits at $12.5 million.

Why so high? Arizona has at minimum a top four pick to start all seven rounds of the draft, which includes picks No. 3 and 34. The higher said picks are, the more expensive the players' rookie scale contracts amount to.

Currently, the Cardinals are one of six teams to have 70 or more players signed to their offseason rosters. With a maximum of 90 players allowed for training camp/preseason and Arizona ready to welcome roughly seven more players via the draft (who knows, general manager Monti Ossenfort loves to trade), there's still a little bit of wiggle room for the Cardinals to bring on more talent.

In terms of dead cap space, which in short is money owed to players not on the roster anymore through prior guarantees, the Cardinals are 16th at $24.7 million... For now.

On June 2, Arizona will see $47.5 million added to that total with the release of Kyler Murray, which will push the Cardinals close to around $72 million and fifth in the league at that point in time.

The Cardinals opted to make Murray a Post-June 1 cut, which will see his dead cap hit spread across two years. He'll still be on Arizona's books for 2027 at $7.2 million.

As a result of the Post-June 1 designation, the Cardinals get an extra $5.1 million added to their 2026 salary cap. The bad news? That won't kick in until June 2. That money could be used to help rookie contracts, possible extensions or just emergency money for the regular season.

Keep in mind that money is able to rollover into the following year as well. As of now, the Cardinals are projected to have the most salary cap space at $178.5 million.

Of course, that number will change as expected extensions Paris Johnson Jr., Garrett Williams and Michael Wilson come into play.

Still, as it stands the Cardinals are in great salary cap shape. While the quality of moves could certainly be debated, Arizona's finances are currently in order.