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Everybody's attention has now shifted to the teams' cap spaces as the new league year approaches.
With the legal tampering phase having commenced on Monday, NFL free agency is officially launched. This ultimately boils down to cap space, though, so let's look into who has it and who doesn't seem to.
For the upcoming season, the salary cap took a significant increase from last year's $208.2 million. For 2023, the salary cap is set at $224.8 million.
Even after obtaining wideout DJ Moore in a deal with the Carolina Panthers, the Chicago Bears were expected to have the most cap space in the League, at around $75 million. The Atlanta Falcons, who have $63.8 million in cap space, is the next closest team.
Prior to the start of free agency, when general manager Ryan Poles will try to strengthen this squad, the Bears are in a good spot.
In light of this, the illustration below shows the available cap space for each team:
1 - Chicago Bears - $75.6 million
2 - Atlanta Falcons - $63.78 million
3 - Las Vegas Raiders - $47.25 million
4 - Houston Texans - $41.26 million
5 - Arizona Cardinals - $36.99 million
6 - Cincinnati Bengals - $35.55 million
7 - Denver Broncos - $33.86 million
8 - New England Patriots - $32.66 million
9 - Miami Dolphins - $29.9 million
10 - Tennessee Titans - $27.28 million
11 - Green Bay Packers - $24.82 million
12 - Carolina Panthers - $23.57 million
13 - Detroit Lions - $21.37 million
14 - Seattle Seahawks - $21.29 million
15 - Los Angeles Chargers - $19.55 million
16 - New York Giants - $18.63 million
17 - Washington Commanders - $16.58 million
18 - Kansas City Chiefs - $15.18 million
19 - New York Jets - $14.91 million
20 - Indianapolis Colts - $12.71 million
21 - Dallas Cowboys - $12.38 million
22 - Pittsburgh Steelers - $11.1 million
23 - Philadelphia Eagles - $8.85 million
24 - San Francisco 49ers - $7.82 million
25 - Baltimore Ravens - $-2.2 million
26 - Tampa Bay Buccaneers - $-3.88 million
27 - Los Angeles Rams - $-5.98 million
28 - Minnesota Vikings - $-6.65 million
29 - Cleveland Browns - $-13.53 million
30 - Buffalo Bills - $-17.13 million
31 - Jacksonville Jaguars - $-17.92 million
32 - New Orleans Saints - $-25.39 million
The Saints have the lowest cap space in the league
The New Orleans Saints will have the smallest salary cap room in 2023.
In the two years following Drew Brees' retirement, the Saints have struggled. They fell short of qualifying for the playoffs in both 2021 and 2022, finishing with a 9-8 record in 2021 and a 7-10 record in 2022.
After signing Derek Carr, the Saints won't be searching for a quarterback this offseason. Once again, their cap situation is a mess. Fans should be on the lookout for more cost-cutting maneuvers in the coming weeks as New Orleans has a lot of work to do to get under the cap.
