Jan. 31, 2026, 2:03 a.m. ET
All 32 NFL teams were informed on Friday by the NFL of a salary cap update.
The NFL, with its continued enormous revenue from game broadcasts, is again increasing the salary cap for the 2026 season. Although specifics have not yet been finalized, the NFL informed teams that the increase will result in a team’s salary cap for the upcoming season ranging from $301.2 million to $305.7 million.
Considering the NFL salary cap in 2022 was $208.2 million, the leap over the last four seasons has been momentous.
What might this mean for the Washington Commanders in particular? Well, one can easily see a scenario for teams that did not fare well in 2025. Imagine you are a free agent and are offered a substantial pay raise by your team, which had a winning record in 2025. Why would you go to a team that only finished 5-12 in 2025, when your winning team is offering much more money than you made, and you can stay with a winner?
In short, the only way Commanders GM Adam Peters may be able to sign some of the more prominent 2026 free agents will be to significantly overpay them. This most often creates another problem, as your own players are not being rewarded substantially. An obstacle for Peters is that he must significantly improve this roster in the 2026 offseason.
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Fans recall an NFL where each season, teams had free agents they simply could not afford to re-sign. Consequently, there was more movement than in the last couple of seasons. So again, this season, with a huge salary cap, NFL teams will have the funds to re-sign their better players to another contract. Leaving needy teams like the Commanders with less capable free agents from which to select.
This puts a much higher premium that NFL general managers perform well in their respective drafts. Unfortunately, the reality is the Commanders do not even own selections in the second nor fourth rounds in April’s 2026 NFL Draft.