The NFL will reportedly set its 2025 cap somewhere between $277.5 million to $281.5 million.
The New England Patriots will have even more cap space available this offseason than originally anticipated. While initial prognostications had them somewhere between $115 million and $129 million, those numbers need to be adjusted upwards after the latest projection from the NFL.
According to a report by ESPN’s Dan Graziano, the league informed its teams on Wednesday that the salary cap for 2025 will “fall in the range of $277.5 million to $281.5 million.” For the Patriots, this means that they will have more than $130 million in cap space available.
Using calculations from salary cap expert Miguel Benzan, the new projection means New England will have between $131.19 million and $135.19 million to work with — by far the highest number in football this offseason.
The closest teams are the Las Vegas Raiders and Washington Commanders, who will have around $100 million and $85 million available to spend this year, respectively. On the other end of the spectrum are five teams currently above the projected cap: Atlanta, Seattle, Buffalo, Cleveland and New Orleans are in the red at the moment.
The Patriots will keep a close eye on those and other teams in the coming weeks, potentially trying to bring some high-profile cap casualties on board. In general, New England is expected to be quite aggressive once free agency and the trade window open on March 12.
Some of the resources will likely be invested in re-signing members of their own free agency class, which currently sits at 14 players deep. A majority of the available resources, however, could go to players from outside the organization.