Broncos lose $4.5 million in 2017 salary cap

The Broncos don’t have quite as much salary cap space anymore.

The NFLPA updated its salary cap report, and it shows the Broncos have $16.148 million left in cap space, a $4.5 million drop from the $20.6 million that was listed after Denver’s most recent free-agent signings.

Denver’s loss in salary cap space is due to a repayment of an NFL loan that teams were allowed to take in 2011 and 2012. The Broncos took the maximum loan, $3 million in 2011 and $1.5 million in 2012. It’s now time for that loan to be repaid in regards to the salary cap. Those loans came during the uncapped year following the 2011 NFL lockout and the adjustment to the new collective bargaining agreement in the year that followed.

More than half of the NFL teams took out loans during that time. Some took the salary cap hit before the 2017 repayment deadline. The Broncos were one of several teams, including the Patriots, Cowboys and Saints, to see the loan repayment on their salary cap this spring.

The Broncos have signed five free agents this offseason — guard Ronald Leary, tackle Menelik Watson, defensive linemen Domata Peko and Zach Kerr and outside linebacker Kasim Edebali. They also restructured tackle Donald Stephenson’s contract. Denver will probably need at least $7 million to $10 million to pay their draft picks, leaving it a little less than $10 million in cap space to spend on late free-agency moves or trade additions.

The Broncos’ $16.148 million in cap space ranks 17th, per the NFLPA’s most recent records.