2026 Washington salary cap update, part 2: defense
January 26, 2026
by Steve Thomas
Welcome to my annual review of Washington’s salary cap situation. I usually do this right after the end of Washington’s season, whenever I get around to transitioning our salary cap and roster pages to the next league year. Well, that annual tradition was last week, and I started with offense You can read that column by clicking here. Our updated salary cap page can be found here, and our updated roster page can be found here. This week I’m going to cover the defense and specialists, and give some concluding thoughts.
Summary
Since last week, Washington signed another player to a futures[1] contract, corner Qwuantrezz Knight, so now the team has 51 players on the offseason roster. Knight’s contract details are unavailable as of publication, so including all of their own futures signings, the team has used approximately $254M of their available cap space.
The good news is that most of the team’s enormous $25M dead cap hit in 2025 expires at the end of the league year, so they are currently down to just $248K by that measurement. The NFL has not announced the 2026 base salary cap yet. However, given that it was at $279.2M in 2025, I have conservatively estimated the 2026 figure at $300M, which is roughly in line with recent increases. I will update our charts when the exact figure is released. The team also has approximately $23M in rollover cap space from 2025 and a little more than $3M in a salary cap adjustment. All of that means that Washington’s salary cap figure for 2026 is going to be in the range of $326M; again, depending on the final base salary cap figure.
This means that Washington currently has around $70M in free cap space for 2026. This is the sixth-most in the NFL. The Tennessee Titans are in first place with almost $99M in free space, followed by the Raiders with just under $93M, then the Chargers with $88M, the Jets with more than $81M, and the Raiders with a little under $73M. The Chiefs are in the worst cap situation, by far, as they are currently over the cap by more than $38M. Dallas is more than $28M over the cap; again, depending on the final base salary cap.
Although Washington has around $70M in overall free space, they need to project approximately $11.7M in for the rookie salary pool. Therefore, practically speaking, they have around $59M in space to use. The team has kept around $20-$25M in cap space free in each of the Adam Peters years, so that means Washington will probably look to spend somewhere in the range of $35-$40M in 2026 cap space in free agency as things currently stand. With that having been said, there are a couple of cuts the team could make to generate some more space, and I’ll cover that as we go.
Finally, the NFL has an offseason rule called the “Rule of 51”, in which teams are allowed to only count the cap hits of the top 51 players of the maximum of 90 allowed. This rule is in place in order to allow teams to reach the full 90 player offseason roster without going way over the cap. This rule will apply to Washington, but it is irrelevant right now since the team only has 50 players.
With that out of the way, let’s dive into the specifics of each position group. As I said above, I’ll cover the offense this week.
Summary of defense
Washington currently has 27 defensive players signed to the 2026 roster, for a total of $122M in cap space, which represents 37.45% of available cap space.
Defensive line
There are currently a total of 8 defensive lineman on the roster (counting T.J. Maguranyanga, who some view as a linebacker), who occupy a total of $63M in cap space, which is almost 19.4% of available cap space. This is the second highest expenditure for a position group on the team, behind the offensive line. Daron Payne and Javon Kinlaw are, by far, the largest cap hits, at $28M and $16.2M, respectively, followed by Dorance Armstrong at $12.4M. Payne is in the final year of his contract and has a pre-June 1 dead cap figure of just $11.2M. As a result, if the team wants to create more cap space, he’s the easiest way to do it. Outright cutting him would save $16.8M. Or, in the alternative, Washington could re-sign him to a 3 or 4 year contract, and convert some of his $16.4M base salary to a signing bonus, and knock his 2026 cap hit down pretty significantly. For his part, Kinlaw, who is signed through 2027, has a pre-June 1 dead cap figure of more than $23M, so he isn’t a candidate for an immediate cut to save space. Armstrong is in the final year of his contract could be cut at a savings of $3.335M, although considering his production last year when he was healthy, that seems like a longshot. The team should look into extending Armstrong, which could also reduce his cap hit. The rest of this group are on fairly minimal or rookie contracts.
Linebackers
Washington currently has 6 linebackers under contract for the 2026 season, not including Maguranyanga, but including Nick Bellore, who is listed as a fullback by some but is in reality a special teams-only player. This position group accounts for a total of $17.9M in cap space, which is 5.5% of the team’s available space. Of this group, only Frankie Luvu has a significant cap hit, $11.3M in 2026, which is the final year of his contract. All of the other linebackers are at or near minimum salary cap hits. Ale Kaho and Jordan Magee are both signed through 2027, and future hall of famer Cain Medrano is signed through 2028. D.J. Johnson is on a one year futures contract for 2026. Washington clearly needs another starter-level player here, even is Magee takes over for Wagner next season, and considering the fairly minimal amount of cap space spent on this group, they can probably afford to take on another mid-level player.
Corners
Including their new signing, Knight, Washington has 7 corners on the roster for 2026, not including Jartavius Martin, which occupy a total of $25.3M in cap space (not including Knight, whose contract details are unavailable as of publication). This is 7.75% of the team’s total available space. Marshon Lattimore is the huge question mark of this position group. He is in the final year of his contract and has a cap hit of $18.5M, including a $16.5M base salary, with zero dead cap. As a result, the team could choose to extend him and thereby lower his cap hit quite a bit by converting most of his base salary to a signing bonus. This seems unlikely given his performance in Washington and his injuries. If the team chooses to cut him, he would save the full $18.5M against the cap. All of the rest of these players are on minimum of rookie deals. Starters Mike Sainristil and Trey Amos are signed through 2027 and 2028, respectively. Tre Hawkins, Darius Rush, and Car’lin Vigers are all on one year deals. Extending or cutting Lattimore is the team’s only significant move in this group if they want to create space.
Safeties
The team has 6 safeties under currently under contract, for a total of $15.7M in cap space, which is 4.8% of the available space. Not one of these safeties are signed beyond the 2026 season. Will Harris has the biggest cap hit by far, at $5M, of which only $2.89M is base salary, followed by Jeremy Reaves at almost $3.5M, and Percy Butler at $2.825M. All of these players are releasable at fairly small savings if the team chooses to do so, but there isn’t a significant amount of cap savings to create here.
In total, the defensive backfield has 12 players signed for a total combined cap hit of $41M, which represents 12.5% of available cap space. Lattimore is 41% of the combined cap hit by himself.
Specialists
This position group is currently a disaster area, with only long snapper Tyler Ott under contract. 2026 is the final year of his 3 year deal, and his cap hit is just $1.5M. Washington obviously needs both a punter – which if there is a God, will be Tress Way – and a kicker.
[1] A player signed under a futures contract is not technically on the team’s roster until the start of the next league year, but is allowed to access the team facility and participate in any team activities until that time. Teams can only do this with practice squad players, because practice squad contracts expire at the end of the team’s season, not at the end of the league year.