Things have not gone well for the Las Vegas Raiders this year. And changes are coming. The roster needs significant help on the offensive line, in the secondary, and along the defensive front seven. They need additional playmakers. Oh, and a quarterback.
One thing working in the Raiders' favor is that they will not be lacking for financial resources to help general manager John Spytek remake the roster into one that can compete in the rough and tumble AFC West.
Raiders fans should pay attention to cash, not salary cap
While most people become fixated on the salary cap space available for their teams, that is not the controlling factor that dictates how much talent teams import via free agency and trade. Cash is much more important.
Owners give their personnel departments spending budgets in terms of cash that they actually have to pay out -- not cap, which is merely a multi-year accounting vehicle.
So, while the Raiders have a $110 million salary cap surplus, it's their cash position that is much more important to their offseason plans. No two teams are alike, and cash budgets aren't publicly available. But we can look at the recent past to determine what spending habits each team has been developing.
Using the NFLPA public reports from 2021-2024 and Spotrac for 2025, we can build a spending history, relative to the NFL salary cap, for Las Vegas.
Year | NFL Salary Cap ($M) | Raiders Cash Spending ($M) | Cash-to-Cap Rate |
|---|---|---|---|
2021 | $182.5 | $197.3 | 108% |
2022 | $208.2 | $206.3 | 99% |
2023 | $224.8 | $222.0 | 99% |
2024 | $255.4 | $212.4 | 83% |
2025 | $279.2 | $279.6 | 100% |
2021-2025 | $1,150.1 | $1,117.6 | 97% |
Under Mark Davis, the Raiders have been one of the more conservative teams in cash spending. 2021 was an outlier year in that the salary cap contracted due to the effects of COVID-19 on league revenue. Every team saw a jump in their cash-to-cap rate. Looking just at 2022-2025, the Raiders' average cash-to-cap rate is hovering just over 95%.
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Las Vegas Raiders 2026 Cash Commitments
The Raiders have one of the lowest 2026 cash commitment registers in the league. Only three players are set to earn over $10 million next year. Those three players are defensive end Maxx Crosby ($30.8M), quarterback Geno Smith ($26.5M), and left tackle Kolton Miller ($20.2M). The next highest paid player on their roster next year is safety Jeremy Chinn at just over $7.6M.
All told, players who are under contract for 2026 represent about $140 million in cash commitments. That's 32 players. Add in their draft class, which, as of right now, would add another $60 million in cash to their books and push them to $200 million. Another 11 players to fill out the roster is about $9 million.
The CBA Cash Spending Floor
The NFL-NFLPA collective bargaining agreement requires teams to spend 90% of the salary cap in cash over the 2024-2026 league years. To hit that mark, Las Vegas will need to spend around $265 million to hit that benchmark or risk just having to pay the NFLPA to distribute the difference across all active players.
Assuming they don't cut or trade anyone of note, and there are no obvious candidates on the roster at this time who are due for an extension this offseason, the Raiders will need to spend about $56 million in free agency this coming offseason.
That primes them to be major players for several mid-tier free agents to help build the middle of their roster while also ensuring that they should be in the sweepstakes for many, if not all, of the top players on the market.
And if money is the prime driver of any player's decision-making, very few teams will be able to keep up with what Las Vegas can offer this offseason.