One of the major topics of discussion for fans of the Seattle Seahawks all offseason has been the salary cap issues the team would face in 2025 as a result of its contractual commitment that had the team projected to come in well above estimates for the 2025 salary cap.
All that discussion was, of course, based on guesses regarding where the salary cap would finally fall, and while a final number has yet to be announced, the league has finally provided teams guidance on where the 2025 cap will be.
The NFL today informed teams that the 2025 per-team salary cap will fall in the range of $277.5 million to $281.5 million, way up from last year’s $255.4 million. Cap will have increased by more than $53 million over the last two years.
— Dan Graziano (@DanGrazianoESPN) February 19, 2025
A higher cap is, of course, good news for a team like the Hawks who are projected to be over the cap, though given the new range the team won’t need to create nearly as much space. The midpoint of the $277.5M to $281.5M range provided is $279.5M, and based off that number OverTheCap.com now projects the 2025 Seahawks to be just $6.46M over the cap.
Thanks to simple math, given that the estimate of the 2025 cap is now $7M higher than it had been, that means the Hawks will need to free up $7M less in cap space between now and the start of the new NFL league year three weeks from Wednesday on March 12.
However, the increase doesn’t get the team completely out of the woods, as that $6.46M must be freed up between now and 4 pm New York time on March 12. Then, between March 12 and the start of training camp in August the Hawks will need to create an additional $3.2M or so of cap space to sign their draft picks, and roughly $5M more required before the start of the regular season in order to be able to build a practice squad, pay for players who land on injured reserve during training camp and the other additional cap costs that come along with the regular season.
Certainly no need to panic, but moves will still need to be made in order to free up cap space in the coming weeks and months.