The NFL’s salary cap for the 2023 season will be a record high $224.8 million. That should help spur a healthy free agent market — but it won’t keep teams from having to make difficult roster decisions this spring.
Each March is the backdrop as expensive veterans restructure their contracts, take pay cuts or, in the worse case scenario, wind up released outright by teams who value cap space more than their contributions. In some cases, these roster moves are the outcome of general managers weighing a current player’s production vs. potential replacements on the open market. In others, cuts are the equivalent of tossing cargo from a sinking ship in an effort to remain seaworthy — or, in this case, cap compliant.
