In professional sports, a salary cap is a wage cap that imposes a limit on the total amount of money a team can spend on their players’ salaries. It serves as both a per-player limit and a total limit, or either.
In the NFL, that cap is a hard one that forbids teams from going above it, and the salary floor is also a hard floor. Contract cancellations, loss of draft picks and fines of up to $5 million are all penalties inflicted if caps are violated.
NFL Salary Cap 2023
The NFL salary cap increases every year, with the 2023 floor set at$224.8 million, a $16.6 million, and 7.9% increase over last year’s cap number, $208.2 million. Since 2012, the addition has been at least $10 million per year.
The NFL Players Association negotiated a new collective bargaining agreement (CBA) in 2017, and since then, that number has been set to increase over time.
Since NFL teams require a 53-man minimum roster, massive amounts of money go toward a player’s budget. While quarterbacks- the highest-paid members of a team- typically earn multi-year contracts for millions of dollars a year, the median salary of an NFL player is $860,000 per year.
In 2022, quarterbacks made an average of over $7 million, while wide receivers averaged $2.8 million.
The money gets bigger and bigger as you filter through the pick of the litter. The top-10 QBs average $49.4 million, in comparison to the $24.8 million average for the top-10 WRs.
Special teams are at the bottom of the salary list, averaging $2.775 million. The second-lowest paid players are the running backs, to many’s surprise.
The NFL’s minimum player salary
As per the league’s Collective Bargaining Agreement established in March 2020, NFL players’ minimum salary measured up to $660,000 in the 2021 season, which went up from $610,000 in 2020. The minimum salary rose to $705,000 in 2022.
This year, the minimum salary for an NFL player is $750,000. This amount applies exclusively to NFL rookies during their debut season. As they advance, the minimum rises to $870,000 and $940,000 by the third year. However, it’s important to note that this minimum figure doesn’t guarantee that a player will receive the entirety of that amount.
For players who are on the active 53-man roster throughout the NFL season, they will receive their complete allocation. However, if a team releases a player or assigns them to the practice squad, the amounts undergo significant changes.
Who is the lowest-paid NFL player in 2023?
While Tyrone Swoopes won the reigning title of the lowest-paid NFL player in 2021, looking at the low end of league earners isn’t as simple. NFL players face different minimum values that depend on their contract and designation as active or inactive players.
As stated in the most recent CBA, the minimum salaries for the upcoming 2022 season are as follows:
Years
Minimum salary for players on Active/Inactive list
Minimum salary for players not on Active/Inactive list
0
$705,000
$430,000
1
$825,000
$455,000
2
$895,000
$480,000
3
$965,000
$505,000
4-6
$1,035,000
$530,000
7+
$1,120,000
$580,000
There are two types of practice squad players who are eligible for a fixed rate weekly payment: those who have no accrued NFL seasons, made the active list in less than nine regular season games per accrued season, or one of four selected players to have an unlimited number of appearances during a maximum of two accrued seasons.
Practice squad players who do not meet these qualifications are still eligible for a weekly payment, but a minimum one that exceeds the fixed rate.
These payments are delivered weekly as long as a player remains on the practice squad, including the postseason:
Practice Squad players who fall within one of three parameters for a fixed amount: Fixed weekly salary of $11,500
Practice Squad players who do not fall within one of the three parameters for a fixed amount: Minimum weekly payment of $15,400; maximum weekly payment of $19,900
How much will NFL rookies get paid?
The deal for the 2023 No. 1 pick is approximately valued at $41,217,000 in total, including an estimated signing bonus of $26,976,000 and a cap hit of $7,494,000 for the year 2023, as reported by Spotrac.
According to Spotrac, the minimum salary for a player in the NFL is $795,000, though this figure tends to change based on experience. The minimum for a rookie is $795,000, which increases to $9150,000 for players with one year of experience and $985,000 for players with two years of experience.
What is the NFL veteran minimum salary in 2024? The veteran minimum is set at $915,000 for the 2024 NFL season, per Spotrac.com. Comparatively, the rookie minimum is worth $715,000.
Currently, first-round draft picks can sign four-year deals worth around $12.75m. In the second round, that number drops to between $6m and $12m, then third-round picks can earn between $5.4m and $6m. That drops to between $4.5m and $5.4m in round four, with fifth rounders between $4m and $5m.
The amount an NFL player makes in a week can vary greatly depending on their experience, position, and contract negotiations. On average, a rookie player can make around $480,000 per year, which breaks down to approximately $28,235 per week during the 17-week regular season.
The lowest-paid position in the NFL is typically considered to be that of a practice squad player. Players on the practice squad can earn a minimum of $8,000 per week during the regular season, which is a total of $136,000 over a 17-week season.
Your third team guy is really only there if catastrophe hits, and to run the scout team. Often they make less than $1–$1.5 million a year, depending on how long they've been in the league and their status.
What is Jason Kelce's salary? As of 2023, Jason Kelce is under contract with the Philadelphia Eagles. His current contract is worth $14.5 million per year, making him the highest-paid center in the NFL. It includes a base salary of $1,165,000, a $10,335,000 signing bonus, and $14,250,000 guaranteed overall.
Purdy signed a four-year, $3.7 million contract with the 49ers after being selected with the last overall pick in the 2022 NFL Draft. His annual base salary of $934,252 ranks 54th among all NFL quarterbacks, per Over The Cap.
Although the official figures are not usually revealed publicly, after the last agreement between the league and the NFL Referees Association it was known that in the 2019 season, referees received earnings of $205,000 on average. This equates to around $12,000 per game, a pretty significant figure.
Mahomes signed a massive 10-year, $450 million extension in 2020, which pays him an easy to calculate annual average value of $45 million. That money was spread creatively throughout the contract, however, via a contract restructure.
Former National Football League (NFL) player and executive Jerry Richardson was the richest NFL player of all time as of January 2023, with a net worth of around two billion U.S. dollars.
For the 2023-24 NFL playoffs, players are paid either $41,500 (wild-card teams) or $46,500 (division winners) for wild-card games, $46,500 for the divisional round, and $69,000 for conference championships. Players on first-round bye teams receive $41,500 for the wild-card round despite not playing in a game.
The Cincinnati Bengals' Joe Burrow leads the list at $55 million, with the Los Angeles Chargers' Justin Herbert second at $52.5 million per year, followed by the Baltimore Ravens' Lamar Jackson at $52 million per year.
Every NFL player who is on a team's roster during the year will earn a base salary divided up into 18 installments. That covers the 17-game schedule and the bye week which make up the season. If a player gets cut during the season, the bulk of the money they expected to earn gets lost unless they have a guarantee.
The minimum salary for players signing contracts in the 2023-2024 NBA season amounted to over 1.1 million U.S. dollars. This is the first time that the minimum salary has exceeded the one million dollar mark, with the minimum salary in the 2021-2022 season estimated at just over 925 thousand U.S. dollars.
As of Apr 13, 2024, the average hourly pay for a Nfl Football in the United States is $20.38 an hour. While ZipRecruiter is seeing hourly wages as high as $32.69 and as low as $6.73, the majority of Nfl Football wages currently range between $13.70 (25th percentile) to $27.40 (75th percentile) across the United States.
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