{"id":786049,"date":"2026-03-02T06:03:29","date_gmt":"2026-03-02T06:03:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/786049\/"},"modified":"2026-03-02T06:03:29","modified_gmt":"2026-03-02T06:03:29","slug":"how-much-space-do-colts-have-to-spend","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/786049\/","title":{"rendered":"How much space do Colts have to spend?"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Feb. 27, 2026, 1:21 p.m. ET<\/p>\n<p class=\"gnt_ar_b_p\">The NFL announced the 2026 salary cap figure for the <a href=\"\/\" data-t-l=\":b|e|k|\u2691u\" class=\"gnt_ar_b_a\">Indianapolis Colts<\/a> and the 31 other teams.<\/p>\n<p class=\"gnt_ar_b_p\">A month ago, it was reported that the 2026 salary cap would be in the $301.2 million to $305.7 million range. According to <a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/RapSheet\/status\/2027432423575704027?s=20\" data-t-l=\":b|z|k|\u2691u\" class=\"gnt_ar_b_a\" rel=\"nofollow\">Ian Rapoport<\/a>, the official cap number will be set at $301.2 million.<\/p>\n<p class=\"gnt_ar_b_p\">This is up $22 million from the 2024 season and up nearly $100 million from 2022, when the cap figure was $208.2 million.<\/p>\n<p class=\"gnt_ar_b_p\">So what does this mean 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> in 2026?<\/p>\n<p>How much salary cap space do Colts have for 2026 NFL season?<\/p>\n<p class=\"gnt_ar_b_p\">Before this news broke,<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> projected that the Colts had $35.71 million in salary cap space, which ranked as the 13th most in the NFL. That was based on a salary cap figure of $303.5 million.<\/p>\n<p>Expert NFL picks: <a target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\" data-t-l=\":body nav (nfl)|e|auto spike click:6|\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\">After doing a little math, we can estimate that the Colts actually have around $33.41 million in available space.<\/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>Colts 5 largest salary cap hits in 2026Michael Pittman: $29MDeForest Buckner: $26.6MQuenton Nelson: $24.2MCharvarius Ward: $20.2MBernhard Raimann: $17.5M<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Feb. 27, 2026, 1:21 p.m. ET The NFL announced the 2026 salary cap figure for the Indianapolis Colts&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":786050,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2059],"tags":[95878,2005,7,2004,392,2381,6,49915,95900,95882,97159,95903,96013,95896,95888,95895,95899,95883,95881],"class_list":{"0":"post-786049","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-tagbernhard-raimann","19":"tag-tagindianapolis-colts","20":"tag-tagmichael-pittman-jr","21":"tag-tagnational-sports","22":"tag-tagnfl","23":"tag-tagnfl-hub","24":"tag-tagoverall-neutral","25":"tag-tagsports-news","26":"tag-typestory"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nfl\/116158071556756690","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/786049","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=786049"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/786049\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/786050"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=786049"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=786049"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=786049"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}