The 2026-27 NFL calendar year begins March 11, but the offseason has begun for the 18 teams that didn’t make the playoffs. Now, it’s time to look at how the cap works in the offseason.
Deriving the Cap
The NFL will project its revenue for the upcoming season. Then it will multiply it by 48.5% to come up with the players’ revenue share, subtract the benefits, and add or subtract any differences between the actual revenue from the projection and the real revenue from 2026. That number will be divided by 32 to come up with the league base cap.
Team Adjusted Cap
Each team has its own adjustments to the base cap. Adjustments can come from insurance settlements, grievances, earned incentives that were not likely to be earned or unearned incentives that were likely to be earned, and earned per-game roster bonuses that were not likely to be earned or unearned per-game roster bonuses that were likely to be earned. Once those are totaled, along with the chosen unused cap space from the previous season, each team will have its own cap number.
Top-51 Rule
During the offseason, the cap operates under the top-51 rule until the Tuesday before the first game of the season. Only the top-51 charges on the roster will count toward the cap. This is to allow for the 90-man camp rosters.