The NFL teams with the most money to spend in free agency

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(Harry How/GettyImages) NFL free agency begins March 10.

With the deadline to apply the franchise tag expired, we now know that some big free agents are going to hit the open market. Ndamukong Suh, DeMarco Murray, and Julius Thomas are all going to be free agents.

The salary cap has been set to $143.3 million, a 7.5% increase from 2014. As a result, a decent number of teams will have some serious money to spend.

Eleven teams (more than one-third of the league) are at least $30 million below the cap. Four teams are at least $50 million below the cap.

On the other end of the spectrum, the Saints are in salary-cap hell, and the Patriots are going to have to get creative to improve their roster.

Here is the ranking of all 32 teams by cap room (via OverTheCap.com):

  1. Jacksonville Jaguars — $68.5 million

  2. Oakland Raiders — $54.8 million

  3. Cleveland Browns — $53.1 million

  4. New York Jets — $50.0 million

  5. Indianapolis Colts — $43.9 million

  6. Tennessee Titans — $43.8 million

  7. Cincinnati Bengals — $39.4 million

  8. Tampa Bay Buccaneers — $33.4 million

  9. Atlanta Falcons — $32.6 million

  10. Green Bay Packers — $32.5 million

  11. Buffalo Bills — $30.4 million

  12. San Diego Chargers — $29.4 million

  13. Chicago Bears — $28.8 million

  14. Washington Redskins — $27.4 million

  15. Philadelphia Eagles — $26.2 million

  16. Seattle Seahawks — $24.4 million

  17. Minnesota Vikings — $19.9 million

  18. Detroit Lions — $18.7 million

  19. Carolina Panthers — $16.0 million

  20. Denver Broncos — $15.5 million

  21. Arizona Cardinals — $13.5 million

  22. New York Giants — $12.7 million

  23. Houston Texans — $12.6 million

  24. Miami Dolphins — $9.5 million

  25. Pittsburgh Steelers — $7.3 million

  26. St. Louis Rams — $6.9 million

  27. Dallas Cowboys — $6.6 million

  28. San Francisco 49ers — $6.5 million

  29. Baltimore Ravens — $4.1 million

  30. Kansas City Chiefs — ($5.7 million above cap)

  31. New England Patriots — ($12.3 million above cap)

  32. New Orleans Saints — ($22.4 million above cap)

Keep in mind that these numbers are before teams re-sign their own players and give guys under small contracts lucrative extensions. The Seahawks, for example, are going to be cap-strapped because they have to give Russell Wilson a raise that could add up to $19 million to their cap.

Here are the 10 best free agents available, according to NFL.com:

  1. Ndamukong Suh, defensive tackle

  2. Devin McCourty, safety

  3. Julius Thomas, tight end

  4. Randall Cobb, wide receiver

  5. DeMarco Murray, running back

  6. Jerry Hughes, defensive end

  7. Mike Iupati, guard

  8. Greg Hardy, defensive end

  9. Byron Maxwell, cornerback

  10. Torrey Smith, wide receiver

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