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2025 NFL Salary Cap Range Revealed: How Will It Affect the Giants?

The 2025 NFL salary cap is taking a huge jump, which is great news for a Giants team that likely needs to spend big money on a quarterback and cornerback, among other things.

Patricia Traina

Feb 4, 2025; New Orleans, LA, USA; NFL shield logo water bottles at the NFL Shop at the Super Bowl LIX Experience at the Ernest N. Morial Convention Center.
Feb 4, 2025; New Orleans, LA, USA; NFL shield logo water bottles at the NFL Shop at the Super Bowl LIX Experience at the Ernest N. Morial Convention Center. / Kirby Lee-Imagn Images
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The NFL salary cap won't be finalized for another week or two, but there is some very promising news regarding what teams will be able to spend this offseason.

ESPN’s Dan Graziano reported that the league has informed the teams that the 2025 per-team salary cap will be between $277.5 million and $281.5 million, which is well beyond the $272.5 million initially projected by Over the Cap.

Graziano, citing the memo circulated to the 32 NFL teams about the pending increase, said that the anticipated jump is a result of “the fact that the 2024 Player Cost and Salary Cap amount was reduced by $10 million per club due to a $9 million smoothing adjustment and an incremental $1 million being added to Performance-Based Pay.” 

This significant increase is great news for the New York Giants. Using the initial $272.5 million figure, the Giants were projected to have $41,390,069 of total salary cap space (14th most in the league), of which $31,752,449 is considered effective cap space.

Now that this new range has been established, the Giants, who per OTC have $232,281,979 in total cap liabilities on the books for 2025 already, will see an increase in their total cap space from $45,218,021 to $49,218,021.

The Giants cap situation was already in solid shape before this announcement, even though New York has $27.299 million of dead money ($22.2 million of that coming from the Daniel Jones contract) on the books. 

From a bigger-picture perspective, the Giants, who are likely going to need to spend big money on a veteran quarterback and possibly a veteran cornerback, among others, during the upcoming free agency period, don’t necessarily have to make any cap cuts or restructures to the players already on their roster. However, they could still do so if a player is no longer in the team’s upcoming plans.

Defensive lineman Rakeem Nunez-Roches ($5.033 million cap hit) and kicker Graham Gano ($5.665 million cap hit) are two such players whose respective statuses with the team are in question. 

This year’s draft class features a deep pool of defensive linemen that the Giants could turn to in place of the veteran Nunez-Roches, who is in the final year of his contract with the Giants and would yield a $3.6 million savings if he is cut. 

Meanwhile, Gano has struggled with his kicking the last two seasons–he’s converted 64% of his attempts of 40+ yards over the last two seasons and has struggled to stay healthy—and he could become a cap casualty if the Giants decide to go in another direction.

Gano has two years remaining on his contract, with all the guaranteed money owed having been paid. If the Giants were to move on from him this year, they’d save $3.165 million and take a $2.5 million dead money hit.

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Patricia Traina
PATRICIA TRAINA

Patricia Traina has covered the New York Giants for 30+ seasons, and her work has appeared in multiple media outlets, including The Athletic, Forbes, Bleacher Report, and the Sports Illustrated media group. As a credentialed New York Giants press corps member, Patricia has also covered five Super Bowls (three featuring the Giants), the annual NFL draft, and the NFL Scouting Combine. She is the author of The Big 50: The Men and Moments that Made the New York Giants. In addition to her work with New York Giants On SI, Patricia hosts the Locked On Giants podcast. Patricia is also a member of the Pro Football Writers of America and the Football Writers Association of America.

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