The NFL informed teams on Wednesday that the 2025 salary cap will climb to somewhere between $277.5 million and $281.5 million, according to ESPN’s Dan Graziano.
While an increase from the 2024 salary cap of $255.4 million was a given, the more than $22-26 million increase is well north of most estimations. Prior to Wednesday, OverTheCap projected the cap to land at around $272.5 million for the 2025 season.
For the cap-crunched Miami Dolphins, every bit helps.
Prior to the NFL’s Wednesday memo, the Dolphins were projected by most at about $5 million over the salary cap even after parting with three veterans (Raheem Mostert, Kendall Fuller, and Durham Smythe) last week. But the surprisingly large — but still unofficial — 2025 cap has Miami out of the red and into the black.
There’s still tons of work to be done for the Dolphins, financially. They only have 46 players under contract for the 2025 season and will need much, much more cap space to fill out the roster, let alone acquire upgrades to help the team get back to the playoffs.
A few extensions, restructures, and maybe even a trade or two could do the trick, but the NFL’s rapidly swelling salary cap helps. It also makes some of the Dolphins’ recent spending — including the four-year, $212.4 million signed by Tua Tagovailoa — easier to work into the budget.