Now that the Jacksonville Jaguars have signed their entire 10-player NFL draft class, how much available salary cap space remains for the 2026 season?
According to Over the Cap, the estimated cap space needed to sign the Jaguars full draft class was $11.251 million. However, their available salary cap amount didn’t decrease by nearly that much.
When it comes to calculating offseason cap space, only the top 51 contracts, in terms of cap hits, count towards that figure. So, in the cap space calculation, each of these rookie contracts replaced a player who was likely on a minimum deal for the 2026 season — around $885,000.
As OTC notes, this is known as effective cap space — or what is actually available to spend. Although $11.251 million may be needed to sign this year’s draft class, the effective cap space — or difference that will show up in the cap space calculation — is around just $2.401 million.
How much salary cap space do Jaguars have after signing 2026 NFL draft class?
So with all of those cap calculations accounted for, OTC has the Jaguars with $9.603 million in remaining salary cap space.
Compared to the rest of the NFL, only seven teams have less cap space to work with than the Jaguars. Jacksonville has ranked near the bottom in available cap space for much of the offseason. This is, in part, a product of the team absorbing so much dead cap in 2026 after moving on from a number of players last offseason.
That said, if GM James Gladstone wants to make an addition at some point, he likely still has the ability to do so. It’s not as if any free agent signings at this stage of the offseason are going to break the bank.
The Jaguars do not have an abundance of cap space to work with relative to the rest of the NFL, but they are positioned well enough to cover any reasonable cap costs that could pop up throughout the remainder of 2026.
This article originally appeared on Jaguars Wire: Jaguars updated salary cap outlook after signing 2026 NFL draft class
Reporting by Paul Bretl, Jaguars Wire / Jaguars Wire
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
