NFL Salary Cap Explained

The Dallas Cowboys, currently embroiled in contract negotiations with the likes of Dak Prescott, Amari Cooper, and Byron Jones, are one of a few teams this season that will struggle to retain all of their best players due to the league's salary cap.

So, how does the NFL salary cap work, and how much money will teams officially have to spend in 2020?

What is the NFL Salary Cap?

First of all, NFL teams must construct their rosters around a "salary floor," or a league-mandated minimum payroll to avoid cutting costs, as well as a cap, which is a maximum payroll meant to prevent teams from simply buying up the best players in the interest of parity. While the league tightly monitors cap situations to prevent teams from going over that number, teams can be fined huge amounts of money and lose draft picks if they're found to be materially over the cap.

The base NFL salary cap was around $188 million last season. That number, plus carryover and adjustments from the prior season, is what gives a team their functional salary cap going forward. Cap space is determined when you subtract active cap spending and dead money from that number.

All told, the NFL estimated as of December that the 2020 salary cap will end up between $196.8 million to $201.2 million. The official threshold has not been announced as of this writing.

This offseason, the Miami Dolphins, Indianapolis Colts, and Tampa Bay Buccaneers have the most salary cap space. Currently, the Jacksonville Jaguars and Minnesota Vikings need to cut salary to get under the cap.

The salary cap is a novel idea, as it puts teams on a somewhat level playing field, but teams like the Cowboys will curse the existence of the cap when they are forced to part with most of their best players once they sign their QB long-term.