Feb. 28, 2026, 5:45 a.m. ET<\/p>\n
The 2026 NFL salary cap is officially set<\/a>.<\/p>\n NFL teams were informed on Friday that the 2026 salary cap will be $301.2 million. That figure is on the low end of January’s projected salary cap range<\/a>, but it represents a $22 million increase over last season’s salary cap. The cap has increased 40% in just five years<\/a>.<\/p>\n What does it mean for the Detroit Lions<\/a>? It means the Lions<\/a> are roughly $12.2 million over the cap according to Over The Cap’s projections<\/a>.<\/p>\n The Lions will need to be cap compliant before the start of the new league year on March 11 at 4 p.m. ET.<\/p>\n With some previously discussed contract restructures<\/a>, the Lions can free up some cap space in a hurry to get cap compliant. Those restructures would also create an opportunity for the Lions in free agency and for Detroit to re-sign some of its young stars to long-term contract extensions.<\/p>\n Expert NFL picks: Exclusive betting insights only at USA TODAY.<\/a><\/p>\n Starting quarterback Jared Goff is a surefire restructure candidate. By converting Goff’s $55 million in base salary to prorated bonuses, the Lions can morph Goff’s $69.6 million 2026 cap hit to a $29.3 million cap hit, creating $40.275 million in cap savings.<\/p>\n Restructures with wide receiver Amon-Ra St. Brown and offensive tackle Penei Sewell could create an additional $21.1 million and $15.028 million, respectively.<\/p>\n For more\u00a0Lions<\/a>\u00a0coverage, follow us on X,\u00a0@TheLionsWire<\/a>, and give our\u00a0Facebook<\/a>\u00a0page a like.\u00a0Follow Josh on X,\u00a0@JoshOnLions<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Feb. 28, 2026, 5:45 a.m. ET The 2026 NFL salary cap is officially set. NFL teams were informed…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":782108,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2071],"tags":[95878,146,113,2506,7,147,6,52959,96502,95882,96840,96242,95893,96789,95896,95888,95895,95899,97070,95883,95881],"class_list":{"0":"post-782107","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-detroit-lions","8":"tag-accessfree","9":"tag-detroit","10":"tag-detroit-lions","11":"tag-detroitlions","12":"tag-football","13":"tag-lions","14":"tag-nfl","15":"tag-sstssportsnfllions","16":"tag-sstsnlions","17":"tag-tagamerican-football","18":"tag-tagamon-ra-st-brown","19":"tag-tagdetroit-lions","20":"tag-tagfacebook","21":"tag-tagjared-goff","22":"tag-tagnational-sports","23":"tag-tagnfl","24":"tag-tagnfl-hub","25":"tag-tagoverall-neutral","26":"tag-tagpenei-sewell","27":"tag-tagsports-news","28":"tag-typestory"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/782107","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=782107"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/782107\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/782108"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=782107"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=782107"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=782107"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}