Other circumstances driven by the COVID-19 pandemic, when it actually went down from 2020 to 2021 because there no fans in stadiums in 2020, the NFL salary cap goes up every year. It's just a matter of how much. According to ESPN's Dan Graziano, pending some stuff on the NFLPA's end, the league has told teams the 2025 salary cap will fall between $277.5 and $281.5 million.
That will be a notable $22-$26 million increase from 2024 ($255.4 million), and it will be a more than $53 million increase from two years ago ($224.8 million). On the high end, the single-year increase would basically match the post-pandemic increase just that was shy of $26 million in 2022. 2024 brought about a $31 million jump.
The Detroit Lions are in a pretty good spot for cap space this year anyway, but even if it's the same increase for every team more is always better. They will also have some noticeable rollover from 2024, about $23.7 million based on Over The Cap's projections from back in January. Again, more rollover is obviously good and the Lions will have roughly double the league average.
Updated Detroit Lions cap space for 2025 after reported increase
There are still some things the NFL has to take accounting of before each team knows how much cap space they will truly have--"not likely to be earned" incentives, per-game bonuses, etc. As noted by Erik Schlitt of Pride of Detroit, the Lions lost a little less than $165,000 to those kind of adjustments last year. They should not lose a lot to those type of adjustments this year either.
Over The Cap has already split the difference on the salary cap range Graziano reported, tentatively projecting it at $279.5 million per team. With that, OTC Is projecting the Lions to have just shy of $51.9 million in cap space right now; 10th-most in the league. The Lions will have more money to make moves, be it re-signings or notable dips into free agency or the trade market should they want to do so.
Update, Feb. 27: The NFL salary cap for 2025 has been confirmed to be $279.2 million, which then means the Lions are now projected to have around $51.5 million in cap space before any adjustments for incentives, bonuses, etc.