20man: That’s why it’s important to have good people managing the cap and the Lions do in chief operating officer Mike Disner and senior director of football administration Charlie Adkins. Both are very well respected around the league.
I’ll admit I’m not an expert on the cap, but there are creative ways to manage it in terms of void years added to new contracts to lower yearly cap impact or transforming base salary into signing bonus, which is then prorated and spread out evenly over the remaining years of the contract to lower yearly cap impact.
The NFL is experiencing unprecedented revenue growth that could continue to accelerate the salary cap number. The cap jumped $23.8 million alone from 2024 to 2025 going from $255.4 million to $279.2. If that number keeps tracking like that, it will be easier.
There’s always ways teams can get under the cap if they really want to keep or add elite players. They would have to give up something in return somewhere else and that usually comes at the expense of depth.