As the 2023 NFL draft prepares to begin on Thursday evening, the Denver Broncos have 72 players under contract and $7,792,451 in available salary cap space, according to NFL Players Association records.
The Broncos are set to make five picks in the NFL draft (barring trades), which would leave them with room to sign 13 undrafted free agents following the draft’s conclusion this weekend.
Denver’s first pick in the draft is set to be No. 67 overall in the third round. That player will have a salary cap hit of $1,072,834 this season, according to Spotrac.com. The Broncos’ complete draft class (if picked at the team’s current selections) will cost $4,762,939 in cap space.
It’s not as simple as subtracting $4.7 million from the team’s current $7.7 million to calculate the remaining cap space, though. During the offseason, only the Top 51 cap hits on a roster count against a team’s salary cap. Right now, player No. 51 for Denver is Lil’Jordan Humphrey, who has a cap hit of $940,000.
The Broncos’ first-round pick will bump Humphrey out of the Top 51 for a net cap space loss of just $132,834. So instead of the draft class eating $4.7 million worth of cap space, after bumping out players currently in the Top 51, the draft class will likely cost less than $400,000 worth of cap space.
TLDL: Denver has about $7.7 million worth of cap space going into the NFL draft and after signing their draft class, the Broncos will still have around $7.3 million worth of cap space going into the summer.
