Big Cat Country
With the early weeks of free agency in the books, we evaluate where the Jaguars’ salary cap currently stands.
The Jacksonville Jaguars had an extremely busy opening day of free agency, coming to terms with nine of their ten total free agent additions during the legal tampering period. With the team, for the most part, set until the NFL Draft, it’s an opportune time for an update on where the Jaguars salary cap stands.
Dead Money
After moving on from former general manager Trent Baalke and head coach Doug Pederson, the team-building philosophy has also shifted, with multiple Pederson/Baalke contracts also jettisoned from the roster. With that, it should be noted that the Jaguars currently sit at fourth in the NFL in allocated dead money—a current year cap hit for players who have previously been traded or released.
Jacksonville has $58.8 million in dead cap, with Brandon Scherff, Christian Kirk, Evan Engram, and Roy Robertson-Harris each having 2025 dead cap hits of over $7 million, per Spotrac.
The San Francisco 49ers lead the league in dead money at $77 million, followed by the second-most Seattle Seahawks ($67 million), the Philadelphia Eagles ($64 million) in third, Jacksonville at $59 million in fourth, and the Cleveland Browns ($54 million) in fifth.
None completed this offseason (to date).
While the Jaguars were extremely busy throughout free agency with the 10 signings, none of these signings were of the high-profile, ballooning amounts historically seen on opening days of free agency. The team kicked off free agency ranked seventh in salary cap space after trading Christian Kirk, Mitch Morse retiring, and releasing Evan Engram, Ronald Darby, Devin Duvernay, and Josh Reynolds.
2025 cap hits (via Spotrac):
It’s possible that few of these signings alone are likely to be game-wreakers for the Jaguars, upon initial review. However, their collective contributions may help in adding some needed toughness, depth, experience, and versatility to multiple areas of the roster while being fiscally sound. After the ten free agent signings, Jacksonville dropped from seventh to 13th in salary cap space, with $28.8 million available. While “raising the floor” in free agency, Gladstone and Co. are still in a healthy spot to maneuver moving forward. For comparison, the New England Patriots lead the league in available cap 2025 space with $76.5 million.
While Jacksonville has $28.8 million in cap space, the team would need to hold aside approximately 9.7 million of...
