Where the Panthers Sit Under the NFL's New Salary Cap

Teams can spend more money on their roster next season.

Monday afternoon, the NFL informed its teams that the salary cap for the 2023 season will be set at $224.8 million. This will be the highest the cap has ever been and is a bump of $16.6 million from this year's cap of $208.2 million.

Negotiations between teams and unrestricted free agents may begin March 13th at 12 p.m. EST, two days prior to the start of the new league year.

Currently, the Carolina Panthers have $8.7 million in cap space and $14.2 million in effective cap space. Effective cap space is the amount of money the team truly has available to spend. The difference between the two is broken down extremely well in a detailed description by Jason Fitzgerald of OverTheCap.

Carolina sits 21st in the league in available cap space. 

How can they create more room? They can do so by cutting a few players and restructuring some contracts, converting salaries into bonuses. For example, Carolina would save approximately $13.2 million by cutting ties with veteran linebacker Shaq Thompson and roughly $4 million by cutting center Pat Elflein.

Panthers' largest cap hits

1. WR DJ Moore $25M

2. RT Taylor Moton $24.5M

3. LB Shaq Thompson $24.4M

4. DE Brian Burns $16.1M

5. CB Donte Jackson $13.5M

6. RG Austin Corbett $10.9M

7. DT Derrick Brown $7.5M

8. C Pat Elflein $7M

9. TE Ian Thomas $6.7M

10. LT Ikem Ekwonu $6.2M

Panthers pending free agents

Quarterback (2)

Sam Darnold (UFA)

P.J. Walker (RFA)

Running back (1)

D'Onta Foreman (UFA)

Wide Receiver (2)

Andre Roberts (UFA)

Rashard Higgins (UFA)

Tight End (2)

Stephen Sullivan (ERFA)

Giovanni Ricci (ERFA)

Offensive Line (4)

Cameron Erving (UFA)

Bradley Bozeman (UFA)

Michael Jordan (UFA)

Sam Tecklenburg (ERFA)

Defensive Line (2)

Matt Ioannidis (UFA)

Henry Anderson (UFA)

Linebacker (2)

Joel Iyiegbuniwe (UFA)

Cory Littleton (UFA)

Cornerback (1)

T.J. Carrie (UFA)

Safety (5)

Juston Burris (UFA)

Sean Chandler (UFA)

Sam Franklin (RFA)

Myles Hartsfield (RFA)

Kicker (1)

Eddy Pineiro (UFA)

Long Snapper (1)

JJ Jansen (UFA)

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