Packer Central

NFL Salary Cap Soars; Here’s What It Means for Packers

The NFL salary cap will increase at least $22 million compared to last year. That is big news for the Green Bay Packers, though perhaps not for the reason you think.

Bill Huber

A rising salary cap is good news for the Green Bay Packers.
A rising salary cap is good news for the Green Bay Packers. / Jeff Hanisch-Imagn Images
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GREEN BAY, Wis. – The NFL on Wednesday announced an enormous jump in the salary cap – one even larger than teams were expecting.

According to reports, the league has notified teams that the 2025 NFL salary cap will be between $277.5 million and $281.5 million. Last year, the cap was $255.4 million. So, even on the low end of that projection, the cap will be up about $22.1 million compared to last year.

According to NFL.com, teams had been preparing for a cap of $265 million to $275 million; no doubt teams had budgeted for the lower amount, since it’s obviously easier to adjust upward than downward.

So, the good news is that Green Bay Packers general manager Brian Gutekunst has a bunch more money, sort of like grabbing an old jacket and finding a $20 bill.

The bad news is everyone else will be playing under the same financial rules. So, according to OverTheCap.com’s numbers, the Packers have the 11th-most cap space as of today, no different than yesterday or the day before.

According to OTC, the Packers have about $46.1 million of cap space, a figure that reflects the cost of signing the draft class. Under previous projections, OTC had the Packers with about $39 million of space.

Obviously, Gutekunst and his right-hand man, Russ Ball, will have a bigger financial war chest if they decide to pursue free agents. Overall, though, it’s a weak class of free agents, so there will be more money chasing the impact players.

Most importantly for Green Bay is the larger-than-expected cap increase will pay dividends beyond this year. Some of that money can be put toward in-season contract extensions. Or, Gutekunst can sit on his stash of money because any cap space that is unused in 2025 can be pushed into 2026.

It will need every penny it can find next offseason. While Green Bay doesn’t have any free agents that it absolutely must re-sign this year, offensive tackles Zach Tom and Rasheed Walker and receivers Christian Watson and Romeo Doubs will be free agents next year. Plus, the first-round picks from that powerful 2022 draft class, Quay Walker and Devonte Wyatt, will be playing under expensive fifth-year options or will be free agents.

Compounding the challenge, while Green Bay ranks among the teams with the most cap space this year, it ranks among the teams with the least cap space for 2026. In fact, only six teams have less space based on the current accounting, which is obviously subject to change.

Why? Because of how some big contracts have been structured. For instance:

Jordan Love: $29.65 million in 2025; $36.16 million in 2025.

Rashan Gary: $25.72 million in 2025; $28.02 million in 2026.

Kenny Clark: $20.31 million in 2025; $31.37 million in 2026.

Xavier McKinney: $17.84 million in 2025; $19.10 million in 2026.

Elgton Jenkins: $17.56 million in 2025; $24.90 million in 2026.

Josh Jacobs: $11.30 million in 2025; $14.63 million in 2026.

With another $7 million at their disposal, Green Bay might be able to return to a pay-as-it-goes cap-management strategy and get out of the cycle of restructuring that became necessary to keep the Super Bowl window open for Aaron Rodgers after COVID took a big bite out of the cap.

“Certainly, we’d love to be in that situation every year where you have a lot of flexibility to do what you need to do,” general manager Brian Gutekunst said at the end of the season. “I think depending on the opportunities that are out there and your football team or where you’re at can dictate some of that.

“Whenever there are players like X (Xavier McKinney) or Josh (Jacobs) that are out there, which isn’t very often, I think even if you don’t have great flexibility, you have to really consider adding those kind of players because there’s just not that many of them.”

The Packers are sitting on a mountain of cap space, which is good. The bad news is the entire NFC North is in a better position.

According to OTC, the Minnesota Vikings, who swept the Packers in 2024, have $61.0 million of space. The Chicago Bears, who were a blocked field goal away from sweeping the Packers, have $60.9 million of space. The Detroit Lions, who swept the Packers and had the best record in the NFC, have $49.2 million of space.

Plus, the Washington Commanders have an NFC-leading $75.5 million of space. And every little bit will help the Philadelphia Eagles keep their championship team together; the adjustment almost doubled their available space to $17.0 million.

The Tampa Bay Buccaneers, Kansas City Chiefs and Houston Texans got out of the hole; seven teams remain on the wrong side of the ledger, including the AFC-power Buffalo Bills, Dallas Cowboys and Seattle Seahawks.

“I feel really good where we’re at right now (and) would love to stay in that kind of flexibility year to year,” Gutekunst said. “We’ll certainly try to do that but, at the same time, if we have to do some different things because we have an opportunity to acquire a player that can impact our team like these two guys did, we’ll do it.”

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Bill Huber
BILL HUBER

Bill Huber, who has covered the Green Bay Packers since 2008, is the publisher of Packers On SI, a Sports Illustrated channel. E-mail: packwriter2002@yahoo.com History: Huber took over Packer Central in August 2019. Twitter: https://twitter.com/BillHuberNFL Background: Huber graduated from the University of Wisconsin-Whitewater, where he played on the football team, in 1995. He worked in newspapers in Reedsburg, Wisconsin Dells and Shawano before working at The Green Bay News-Chronicle and Green Bay Press-Gazette from 1998 through 2008. With The News-Chronicle, he won several awards for his commentaries and page design. In 2008, he took over as editor of Packer Report Magazine, which was founded by Hall of Fame linebacker Ray Nitschke, and PackerReport.com. In 2019, he took over the new Sports Illustrated site Packer Central, which he has grown into one of the largest sites in the Sports Illustrated Media Group.