Available free agents

[Ironshaft]

Originally Posted by Racehorse

Maybe I am wrong, but I thought it was just the top 51 players that count against the cap. Am I wrong?
https://overthecap.com/salary-cap-space/

That is one of the bad/confusing rules of the NFL.

During the off-season, you only need to count the top 51 players against your salary cap.

However, once teams cut down to 53 players, then all 53 need to be counted against the salary cap for the rest of the season.

For 2022, the difference is about $1.4-1.6m. Rookie street free agents could make as "little" as $705k while the league minimum for 1st year players is $825k (1st year being that they entered the league in 2021 but did not accrue enough time on a 53 man roster to have it "count" as being in the league one year).

Once players accrue 2 years of NFL play and are a 3rd year player, league minimum is around $1-1.1m for the season.

Why the NFL thinks the teams need that extra cap space in the off-season, I don't know but teams need to account for it.