The Arizona Cardinals entered the offseason with more salary cap space available than they have had in years past. That cap space is running out after a number of free agent additions.
As of Thursday morning, according to NFLPA salary cap report, the Cardinals had $24.9 million in available cap space. That included all their free agent additions, including cornerback Josh Shaw, who was the latest to sign, at least before Thursday.
They added defensive tackle Darius Philon Thursday on a two-year, $10 million deal. His cap hit in 2019 will be $3 million.
That leaves about $21.9 million in cap space left.
However, because the Cardinals need about $12 million in cap space for their draft class, they really only have about $9.9 million in functional cap space, and as most teams want to save about $5 million in space for injuries and because when the season begins, they have to account for everyone on the 53-man roster, everyone on injured reserve and all their practice squad players, they have about $5 million in real space to use in the offseason.
They have used filled almost all their big needs in free agency but they have little room to spare.
They can always restructure current deals like with Patrick Peterson or Chandler Jones, but with dwindling cap space, the Cardinals’ work in free agency is almost completely over.
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