By Greg A. Bedard, Globe Staff

The NFL salary cap has been set at $123 million for the 2013 league year, according to various reports, which gives us a much more accurate view of how much room the Patriots have under the cap.

According to our calculations, from a league source with knowledge of the salary numbers, the Patriots are currently $24.988 million underneath the reported number.

Here's how we arrived at those numbers:

That should place the Patriots in the top 10 in the league in cap space available for the start of free agency.

Two additional notes looking back at some past numbers:

• The Patriots have carried over an average of $6.15 million in unused cap space the past two seasons.
• The Patriots started free agency last year with $17.8 million in cap space. It grew to $25 million in mid March when Tom Brady restructured his contract.