The NFL teams with the most money to spend in free agency
(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):
Jacksonville Jaguars — $68.5 million
Oakland Raiders — $54.8 million
Cleveland Browns — $53.1 million
New York Jets — $50.0 million
Indianapolis Colts — $43.9 million
Tennessee Titans — $43.8 million
Cincinnati Bengals — $39.4 million
Tampa Bay Buccaneers — $33.4 million
Atlanta Falcons — $32.6 million
Green Bay Packers — $32.5 million
Buffalo Bills — $30.4 million
San Diego Chargers — $29.4 million
Chicago Bears — $28.8 million
Washington Redskins — $27.4 million
Philadelphia Eagles — $26.2 million
Seattle Seahawks — $24.4 million
Minnesota Vikings — $19.9 million
Detroit Lions — $18.7 million
Carolina Panthers — $16.0 million
Denver Broncos — $15.5 million
Arizona Cardinals — $13.5 million
New York Giants — $12.7 million
Houston Texans — $12.6 million
Miami Dolphins — $9.5 million
Pittsburgh Steelers — $7.3 million
St. Louis Rams — $6.9 million
Dallas Cowboys — $6.6 million
San Francisco 49ers — $6.5 million
Baltimore Ravens — $4.1 million
Kansas City Chiefs — ($5.7 million above cap)
New England Patriots — ($12.3 million above cap)
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:
Ndamukong Suh, defensive tackle
Devin McCourty, safety
Julius Thomas, tight end
Randall Cobb, wide receiver
DeMarco Murray, running back
Jerry Hughes, defensive end
Mike Iupati, guard
Greg Hardy, defensive end
Byron Maxwell, cornerback
Torrey Smith, wide receiver
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