2018 NFL Salary Cap Set

The new league year begins on March 14th. Teams are getting ready for the wolves at the door. Players will leave for other cities. Lots and lots of money will be tossed out. It’s been reported that the salary cap for the 2018 season will be at $177.2 million.

This is lower than expected. Per Pro Football Talk, the salary cap was expected to be $178 million, and perhaps as much as $179 million. To make up for it, the league will pay out certain players based on the number of snaps played via the Player Performance Pool. I didn’t know what it was either.

The Player Performance Pool provides supplemental pay to players based on total snaps and standard compensation, via a formula that looks to reward lower-paid players who end up carrying a heavy workload. The good news, then, is that these overworked-and-underpaid men will get a little more extra than they otherwise would have.

However it shakes out, the money all ends up with players. Salary-cap money is distributed via individual contract negotiation; player performance pool money is earned.

Currently, the Texans are estimated to have $62,383,067 in cap space.

Now that the NFL Combine is over and the new league year kicks off next week, we should see more releases and more players should find out their current teams don’t intend to re-sign them.

Free agency is coming.