Detroit Lions Learn 2024 Salary Cap Figures

What increased salary cap means for Detroit Lions.

The NFL salary cap continues to increase each year. 

In 2024, the league has increased its team salary cap to allot each team a total of $255.4 million, with an additional $74 million per club payment for player benefits. 

The benefits include Performance Based Pay and benefits for retired players. This will make the total cost for players around $329.4 million. The salary cap has risen $30 million this season, up from $224.8 million last year. 

"The unprecedented $30M increase per club in this year’s Salary Cap is the result of the full repayment of all amounts advanced by the clubs and deferred by the players during the Covid pandemic as well as an extraordinary increase in media revenue for the 2024 season," NFL reporter Ian Rapoport wrote in a social media post.

Salary cap news:

The NFL announced that the 2024 Salary Cap will be $255.4M per club, with an additional $74M per club payment for player benefits, which includes Performance Based Pay and benefits for retired players. Total 2024 player costs will be $329.4M per club, or more…

— Ian Rapoport (@RapSheet) February 23, 2024

With the increase in cap, the Lions have almost $64 million in cap space and $55 million in effective cap space according to OverTheCap. This is a significant increase over what the Lions were initially expected to have.

Initially, the salary cap was estimated by league experts to be around $242 million. However, the increase benefits teams and allows for more spending in free agency.

As a result, the Lions are in a better position to make moves in free agency. The organization has several intriguing free agents that they can retain, including Jonah Jackson, Graham Glasgow, Ceedy Duce and Josh Reynolds. 

The salary cap itself has risen incrementally over the last decade. In 2011, in fact, the cap was just $120.375 million.