Updated Look at the Arizona Cardinals’ Salary Cap Space

We're days removed from the start of NFL free agency, giving us the perfect opportunity to evaluate where the Arizona Cardinals are at in terms of cap space.

Yesterday, the Cardinals announced the release of two defensive veterans — which freed up just under $11 million in cap space.

Here's where things currently stand:

Arizona Cardinals Updated Salary Cap Snapshot

Arizona Cardinals GM Monti Ossenfor — Feb 24, 2026; Indianapolis, IN, USA; Arizona Cardinals general manager Monti Ossenfort speaks at the NFL Scouting Combine at the Indiana Convention Center. Mandatory Credit: Kirby Lee-Imagn Images | Kirby Lee-Imagn Images

*All cap figures are derived from OverTheCap*

The Cardinals enter today with $39.6 million in cap space, which ranks ninth in the NFL at this moment in time.

However, they have just $28 million in effective cap space, which ranks 11th. Effective cap space takes out the money needed to sign a team's projected draft class. Arizona has all seven picks with most coming at the top of each round, so naturally their projected salaries are higher compared to most.

The Cardinals are also one of 13 NFL teams to have 58 players or more signed to their roster entering Friday. Teams can have up to 90 signed players in the offseason.

In terms of dead money, the Cardinals are officially only on the books for $14.4 million, which ranks in the bottom half of the league.

However, that is expected to change when Kyler Murray is officially released on March 11 – though it's unclear if he's a Pre or Post-June 1 cut.

Cutting him pre-June 1 will see Arizona eat $54.7 million in dead cap while losing $2 million on their total 2026 cap while a post-June 1 designation will spread that out over two years, seeing the Cardinals take on $47.5 million in dead cap in 2026 but adding $5.1 million to their overall cap space this offseason.

In a worst case scenario (and what many expect) the Cardinals' salary cap will only drop a couple million with Murray's release. With that in mind, Arizona's salary cap total is actually at $37.6 million.

Where Cardinals Can Go From Here

There's still plenty of other cuts the Cardinals can make with solid cap savings:

Dalvin Tomlinson ($9.4 million)
Baron Browning ($4.6 million)
Sean Murphy-Bunting ($7.2 million)
Evan Brown ($4.9 million)
James Conner ($7.5 million)
Zaven Collins ($4.3 million)

It's likely the Cardinals will make a handful of the above cuts, and a conservative projection would be $8 million more added to their cap.

March 9 is the unofficial start of free agency with the first official league day on March 11.