NFL sets 2024 salary cap: What it means for Broncos

According to NFL Network’s Tom Pelissero, the NFL will be raising the 2024 salary cap to $255.4 million. This news is well-received for the Denver Broncos who must navigate a difficult salary cap situation over the next couple of seasons.

The $30 million increase was quite unprecedented, but the NFL explained via Adam Schefter saying the “unprecedented $30 million 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.”

This record increase really helps the Denver Broncos out. Just days ago the estimate salary cap was more than $21 million in the hole, but with this unexpected jump they are now only $10.7 million over, according to OverTheCap.com. Though Spotrac is reporting that Denver is $13 million over. Not sure which site has the right numbers here. I dug into each and found they have different cap hits for a few various back end players, so I could not verify which site had the correct data. So we’ll just say its somewhere between $10.7 and $13 million over the cap for Denver right now.

Ironically, this doesn’t impact the pending departure of Russell Wilson. The dead cap hit with a post-June 1st designation is the same either way. What it does do for Denver is it gives them options to keep some of their veteran guys. Add in a few contract sorcery and they’re just fine for 2024. If anything, they might be able to be a bit more active in the second wave of free agency than we initially thought.

Another thing of note is that cornerback Patrick Surtain II’s 2025 fifth-year option value is now locked in at $19.802 million. We should expect the Broncos to be picking that option up either way.

Running through OverTheCap’s calculator, my expected veteran releases will remain with D.J. Jones and Tim Patrick being the two main cap casualties this cycle. That would bring the Broncos to $8.7 million under the cap. Then they could do some contract work with their recent free agent signings to free up even more. Add in an extension for Garett Bolles or Justin Simmons and Denver would be sitting pretty for this season.

Overall, this unexpected salary cap increase is great news for Sean Payton and the Denver Broncos. The roster needs a lot of work and having that wiggle room to get out from under some bad contracts (cough, Wilson, cough) will be absolutely vital for this franchise to get back onto competitive footing.