{"id":719977,"date":"2026-01-31T21:36:14","date_gmt":"2026-01-31T21:36:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/719977\/"},"modified":"2026-01-31T21:36:14","modified_gmt":"2026-01-31T21:36:14","slug":"how-much-space-does-indianapolis-have-in-2026","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/719977\/","title":{"rendered":"How much space does Indianapolis have in 2026?"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Jan. 31, 2026, 1:53 p.m. ET<\/p>\n<p class=\"gnt_ar_b_p\">Following the NFL&#8217;s latest salary cap news, how much available space do the <a href=\"\/\" data-t-l=\":b|e|k|\u2691u\" class=\"gnt_ar_b_a\">Indianapolis Colts<\/a> now have?<\/p>\n<p class=\"gnt_ar_b_p\">On Friday, it was reported that the league notified teams that the 2026 salary cap would be between $301.2 million and $305.7 million.<\/p>\n<p class=\"gnt_ar_b_p\">Compared to <a href=\"https:\/\/overthecap.com\/\" data-t-l=\":b|z|k|\u2691u\" class=\"gnt_ar_b_a\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Over the Cap&#8217;s<\/a> previous projected salary cap figure of $295.5 million, that&#8217;s a jump in cap space for the <a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/sportsdata.usatoday.com\/football\/nfl\/teams\/indianapolis-colts\/338\" data-autotag=\"d3fda36a-3eb5-4700-8763-caba831c06ae\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\" data-t-l=\":b|e|k|\u2691u\" class=\"gnt_ar_b_a\">Colts<\/a> and the rest of the NFL of roughly $5.5 million to almost $10 million.<\/p>\n<p class=\"gnt_ar_b_p\">The Colts were in good cap shape before this news, and things remain that way. Now, <a href=\"https:\/\/overthecap.com\/salary-cap-space\" data-t-l=\":b|z|k|\u2691u\" class=\"gnt_ar_b_a\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Over the Cap<\/a> has Indianapolis with $34.91 million in available cap space for the upcoming offseason. This is the 12th most in the NFL.<\/p>\n<p class=\"gnt_ar_b_p\">That figure can fluctuate up or down, depending on where the cap lands in that reported range.<\/p>\n<p>Expert NFL picks: <a target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\" data-t-l=\":body nav (nfl)|e|auto spike click:5|\u2691u\" class=\"gnt_ar_b_sp_a\" href=\"https:\/\/sportsdata.usatoday.com\/football\/nfl\/picks\">Exclusive betting insights only at USA TODAY.<\/a><\/p>\n<p class=\"gnt_ar_b_p\">The opportunity for GM Chris Ballard to further reshape the Colts&#8217; roster in free agency does seem to exist, given the team&#8217;s salary cap situation.<\/p>\n<p class=\"gnt_ar_b_p\">When owner Carlie Irsay-Gordon spoke with the media after the season, she mentioned how\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/coltswire.usatoday.com\/story\/sports\/nfl\/colts\/2026\/01\/05\/why-carlie-irsay-gordon-indianapolis-colts-retained-gm-chris-ballard\/88037626007\/\" data-t-l=\":b|e|k|\u2691u\" class=\"gnt_ar_b_a\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Ballard adapted<\/a>\u00a0his roster-building approach, which included being more aggressive.<\/p>\n<p class=\"gnt_ar_b_p\">Ballard then\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/coltswire.usatoday.com\/story\/sports\/nfl\/colts\/2026\/01\/08\/notes-chris-ballard-press-conference-indianapolis-colts-miss-playoffs\/88081607007\/\" data-t-l=\":b|e|k|\u2691u\" class=\"gnt_ar_b_a\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">seemed to acknowledge<\/a>\u00a0that continuing down that path was going to be the plan this offseason.<\/p>\n<p class=\"gnt_ar_b_p\">Addressing the defensive side of the ball, specifically, seems to be a big priority for the Colts this offseason.<\/p>\n<p class=\"gnt_ar_b_p\">Like every other team, Ballard can also create more cap space by pushing current year&#8217;s cap charges to future seasons. This can be done through contract restructures, extensions, or by veteran cuts.<\/p>\n<p class=\"gnt_ar_b_p\">Any unused cap space from 2025 will rollover to 2026 as well.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Jan. 31, 2026, 1:53 p.m. ET Following the NFL&#8217;s latest salary cap news, how much available space do&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":675949,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[2059],"tags":[95878,2005,7,2004,392,2381,6,49915,95900,95882,95903,95896,95888,95895,95899,95883,95881],"class_list":{"0":"post-719977","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-indianapolis-colts","8":"tag-accessfree","9":"tag-colts","10":"tag-football","11":"tag-indianapolis","12":"tag-indianapolis-colts","13":"tag-indianapoliscolts","14":"tag-nfl","15":"tag-sstssportsnflcolts","16":"tag-sstsncolts","17":"tag-tagamerican-football","18":"tag-tagindianapolis-colts","19":"tag-tagnational-sports","20":"tag-tagnfl","21":"tag-tagnfl-hub","22":"tag-tagoverall-neutral","23":"tag-tagsports-news","24":"tag-typestory"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nfl\/115991870629204684","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/719977","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=719977"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/719977\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/675949"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=719977"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=719977"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=719977"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}