New York Jets introduce Mike Maccagnan as General Manager and Todd Bowles as new head Coach

Jets general manager Mike Maccagnan will have the financial tools to be active in free agency. (William Perlman | NJ Advance Media for NJ.com)

With the NFL's free agency period set to begin a week from Tuesday, the league's 2015 salary cap was set Monday at $143.28 million.

But this figure is somewhat misleading. Not all teams will be operating under a $143.28 million in 2015. That's because teams are allowed to carry over unused cap space. As you'll recall, the Jets had a whole lot of that in 2014, when then-general manager John Idzik spent conservatively.

Add the carried-over cap space (and other monetary adjustments) to the $143.28 million figure, and you have a team's adjusted/actual cap space for 2015. The NFLPA on Monday released the numbers for carried-over cap space and adjusted/actual team caps for 2015.

Here's where the Jets fall on those lists, with the other teams in the top 10 included for the sake of context:

CARRIED OVER CAP SPACE

* Jaguars: $21,768,205

* Browns: $18,908,285

* Eagles: $15,715,700

* Jets: $12,619,394

* Titans: $11,254,828

* Bengals: $8,697,310

* Packers: $7,791,106

* Dolphins: $7,770,411

* Colts: $7,699,867

* Raiders: $7,400,000

ADJUSTED/ACTUAL TEAM CAP

* Jaguars: $168,486,107

* Browns: $161,767,400

* Eagles: $159,872,378

* Jets: $156,149,394

* Titans: $154,353,578

* Dolphins: $152,926,937

* Colts: $152,423,392

* Bengals: $152,130,435

* Raiders: $151,872,756

* Packers: $151,471,106

In addition to their $12,619,394 in carried-over cap space from 2014, the Jets had an additional $250,000 in adjustments, which is how you get to a team cap of $156,149,394.

(Adjustments, by the way, are the incentives and grievance money a team either has to pay out, or gets back.)

What matters during free agency, of course, is not just a team's adjusted cap, but how much cap room the team has. That dictates how active it can be during free agency. Shortly after he took the job, the Jets' new general manager, Mike Maccagnan, said his organization would be "very active" in free agency this offseason.

We knew all along that the Jets would have a lot of salary cap space this offseason. Now we know exactly how much they're carrying over from 2014, and that their team cap will be $12,869,394 higher than the league's $143.28 million cap.

As for how much cap space the Jets are going to have, overthecap.com estimates it at $51,728,474 -- the league's fourth-highest figure. But the website lists the Jets' adjust team salary cap at $155,587,794, rather than the NFLPA figure of $156,149,394.

To calculate salary cap space, you subtract active cap spending and dead money from the team's adjusted salary cap. When using the active cap spending and dead money figures on overthecap.com, along with the NFLPA's team cap, the Jets' cap space number works out to $52,290,074.

Anyway, the bottom line remains: The Jets have everything they need to be significant players in free agency next week, as they work to acquire not only just new players, but also to re-sign their own free agents, like middle linebacker David Harris. Plus, Maccagnan needs to reserve some coin for defensive end Muhammad Wilkerson's upcoming long-term contract.

As you ponder the Jets' current, auspicious financial situation -- and who they should chase in free agency -- check out the photo gallery below for some free agents we think they ought to target.

Darryl Slater may be reached at dslater@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter @DarrylSlater. Find NJ.com Jets on Facebook.