What is the veterans' minimum salary in the NFL?

The minimum salary in the NFL fluctuates based on the number of years a certain player has been in the league. That ranges anywhere from $660,000 for rookies and all the way up to $1.075 million for the 2021 NFL season, depending on seniority. The minimum salary increases every season, according to the Collective Bargaining Agreement (CBA).

Over the next ten years, the minimum salary in the NFL is set to steadily increase to above one million dollars per player. The NFL players union has made this a focus point during the CBA conferences to increase the minimum salary. There is no maximum salary for individual players but there is a combined team salary cap for all player contracts.

Minimum salary increases from CBA agreement

The current Collective Bargaining Agreement, which started in 2020 and runs through 2030, is designed to increase the minimum salary in the NFL each year. In the 2021 NFL season the minimum salary based on service years is as follows: $660,000 for rookies, $780,000 for one year of service, $850,000 for two years, $920,000 for three years, $990,000 for four to six years and $1.075 million for seven years or more.

Each year between now and through 2030, the minimum salary will increase by $45,000 in each of the same service time brackets stated above. Rookies in the 2022 NFL season will make a minimum salary of $705,000 while the top veteran bracket will make a minimum salary of $1.12 million.

In 2030 when the current collective bargaining agreement concludes, the minimum salary based on service years will be as follows: $1.065 million for rookies, $1.185 million for one year of service, $1.255 million for two years, $1.325 for three years, $1.395 million for four to six years and $1.480 for seven or more years of NFL service time.

It is highly unlikely those numbers will ever go down in the future because of the power of the NFL players union when meeting with league officials and negotiating a new CBA. The NFL as a whole generates billions of dollars and the profits are always increasing.

The contracts are getting bigger, and so is the minimum salary. By 2029, every NFL player, no matter how long they have been in the league, will be making a minimum salary of over a million dollars per season.