Lions Have Highest Adjusted Salary Cap of Any Playoff Team

The Detroit Lions have the resources to be spenders this offseason ahead of a critical 2025 season.

Detroit has Super Bowl aspirations after coming up short in the postseason with a loss to the Washington Commanders in the Divisional Round. General manager Brad Holmes has the financial flexibility to make moves for the 2025 season, as the team has the highest adjusted salary cap amount of any playoff team from the 2024 season.

Adjusted salary cap factors in the amount of money that teams carryover from last season as well as the net incentive adjustment. The net incentive adjustment accounts for performance-based incentives that affect player contracts and the team's salary cap.

There are two types of incentives that factor into the salary cap: Likely To Be Earned Incentives (LTBE) and Not Likely To Be Earned (NLTBE) Incentives. LTBE incentives are those who are based on performance in previous seasons, while NLTBE incentives are those that are increases from performance in previous years.

For instance, an LTBE incentive would be one for a player to reach 1,000 receiving yards a year after they had 1,200. Meanwhile, a NLTBE would be an incentive for a player to reach 1,000 receiving yards a year after they had 800.

LTBE incentive amounts are credited to teams if a player does not reach them, while NLTBE incentives are charged to teams if players do earn them. Teams can gain cap credits if players do not reach LTBE incentives, but the amounts are charged to the cap if players do achieve NLTBE goals.

Therefore, teams gain additional cap space through LTBE incentives that are not reached and incur cap space hits by players achieving NLTBE incentives. Adjustments to the salary cap can also include repayments from insurance policies for teams.

To calculate a team's adjusted salary cap, rollover is combined with the amount saved or lost through net incentive adjustments and added or subtracted from the NFL's official salary cap number.

In 2025, the official NFL salary cap number is $279.2 million. The Lions carried over $23.7 million and, with the net incentive adjustment factored in, the Lions' adjusted salary cap number is $306,476,025.

Here's a look at each NFL team’s adjusted salary cap. 💰

What’s adjusted cap? This year's salary cap ($279.2M) for each club +/- adjustments from the 2024 league year. pic.twitter.com/o8Dieg452m
— NFLPA (@NFLPA) March 12, 2025

Detroit's adjusted salary cap is the highest in the NFC North and third-highest in the NFC. The San Francisco 49ers lead the league in adjusted salary cap at $341,460,882. In the AFC, the Cleveland Browns have the highest adjusted salary cap at $325,912,898.

On the flip side, the Buffalo Bills have the lowest amount at $273,170,198. The Bills were low on cap holdover and lost around $7 million in adjustments.

The Lions have made two external moves in the league's window for legal negotiations, signing cornerback D.J. Reed and defensive tackle Roy Lopez. Additionally, the Lions agreed to new contracts for linebacker Derrick Barnes and defensive end Marcus Davenport.

Currently, the Lions have $18 million on their books in dead cap.

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