2017 NFL salary cap will rise to as much as $170 million

News came out on Wednesday morning regarding the NFL’s salary cap for the 2017 season, showing that it will rise a significant amount, as expected. According to some of the reports the new salary cap will be between $166 and $170 million, a big increase from the 2016 salary cap figure of $155.27 million. For a team like that Jacksonville Jaguars, that means they’ll have even more cap room to play with for things like re-signing guys like Telvin Smith, Brandon Linder and others who show they’re worth bringing back from general manager Dave Caldwell’s first few draft classes.

If the cap figure is on the high end of $170 million, which I am expecting, that means the Jaguars will have something in the range of $70 million in cap room to spend. The minimum spend requirement does not apply any longer, so they can also choose to just sit on the money if for some weird reason they choose to do so.

Currently the Jaguars project to have the seventh-most cap room in the NFL, behind (most to least) the Cleveland Browns ($116M), San Francisco 49ers ($96M), Tampa Bay Buccaneers ($80M), Tennessee Titans ($77M), New England Patriots ($74M) and Washington ($70M).

The 2017 free agent class has some interesting names, but once you consider who all will likely be re-signed or franchise tagged prior to the market opening, it once again looks to be slim pickings so it will be ultra-competitive for the top players, especially in positions that the Jaguars need such as offensive line and pass rush.