How much cap space the Seahawks need to create for 2025

There’s no reason to panic, but the Seahawks will need to free up tens of millions of dollars of 2025 cap space in the next eight weeks, and the impact of those decisions could be significant.

For three quarters of the NFL the offseason has begun, and that includes the Seattle Seahawks, who failed to qualify for the postseason for the second year in a row and the third time in four years.

The offseason, of course, means free agency and the draft, but before either of those arrive, all 32 NFL teams must come into compliance with the salary cap ahead of the start of the new league year on March 12 at 4 pm New York time. That’s not a big deal for most of the league, with the majority of teams already in compliance with the projected 2025 salary cap. However, roughly a half dozen teams will need to free up cap space ahead of the start of the new league year, including the Seahawks.

According to OverTheCap.com Seattle is currently one of just six teams that are projected to be more than $10M over the cap, though exactly how much over the cap will depend on exactly where the final cap number ends up. With that in mind, the numbers in this article are based on a cap of $272.5M, as projected by OTC.

As always, the starting point for this review is the $27.4M of cap space the Hawks are projected to have by OTC. That amount is, of course, prior to certain cap needs that will be added in, but it is a fine place to start.

From there, it’s necessary to include the additional cap space requirements that resulted from the 2024 season. The biggest, and most widely recognized by fans, is the $6M of incentives that increased the 2025 cap hit of quarterback Geno Smith to $44.5M. Also included in the $27.4M number is the roughly $8M of Proven Performance Escalators earned by Riq Woolen, Coby Bryant and Abe Lucas, along with the base salary escalator earned by Jason Myers.

However, what the $27.4M does not include is the $2.04M incentive earned by Laken Tomlinson, meaning that amount must be deducted from the cap space available to the Hawks. Or, perhaps more accurately, added to the amount of space the Seahawks will need to create ahead of the new league year in eight weeks.

Including Tomlinson’s incentive in the cap puts the Seahawks $29.5M over the projected 2025 salary cap, which, of course, means the Hawks will need to free up right around $30M of space ahead of the start of the new league year.

That won’t be the end of it, though. Specifically, once the new league year starts, Seattle will need an additional $3.283M of space to sign their draft class, as well as somewhere in the neighborhood of $4M-$4.5M of space for the practice squad and practice squad elevations throughout the year. Lastly, they will need a reserve pool, typically a couple of million dollars. Putting all the pieces together, between now and the start of the season the Hawks will need to create somewhere in the neighborhood of $38M-$40M of cap space.

Not all of that space needs to be created at once, of course, with the need to create space coming in waves as the cap needs arise. The key dates are:

• Start of the new league year: $30M prior to March 12, 2025
• Start of training camp: $3.283M to sign draft picks in late July
• Late August/Early September: ~$4M for the practice squad
• Start of the regular season: A couple million for injury replacements

There is certainly no reason to panic, as John Schneider and the rest of the front office staff have plenty of levers available to pull in order to create significant cap space in the coming weeks and months. The question, and the challenge, though, becomes exactly which of those levers the team opts to pull to create cap space, and how much of a need to spend is created as a result of those decisions.