Colts gain extra $4.95 million in salary cap space with carryover

The NFL's salary cap for 2016 has not been officially set, but it appears that the Colts should have plenty of cap space to work with.

The NFL Players Association this morning announced the amount of salary cap carryover for each team this year, and the Colts have opted to carryover $4,950,629 in unused cap space from last year to this year.  For comparison, the teams carrying over the most cap space are the Colts' AFC South rivals, the Jacksonville Jaguars ($32,774,928) and the Tennessee Titans ($20,783,801).

The cap has not officially been announced, though a recent report said the cap would be at least $155 million this year.  The even more recent report of the owners withholding funds from players in recent years could cause the cap to increase even more, while the Colts will then have nearly $5 million in cap space added on top of that.  Using a projected $155 million cap, Over the Cap projects the Colts to have nearly $25 million in cap space.

Furthermore, it is likely that the Colts will make some moves that would free up even more cap space, such as releasing Andre Johnson (which would save $5 million) and/or Trent Cole (which would save $6.125 million).  In other words, they should have plenty of room to work with this offseason, which is a good thing when considering the needs they have.  They surely would like to keep some of their own free agents, with guys like Jerrell Freeman, Adam Vinatieri, Dwayne Allen, Coby Fleener, and Dwight Lowery being potential targets.  They also could stand to upgrade several other positions, such as offensive line, pass rush, and cornerback.  Additionally, the team would like to get quarterback Andrew Luck under contract long-term, which could take up a bit more cap space as well.  The good news in all of that?  The Colts will have plenty of cap room to work with.