Now that the dust has settled after a nail-biting Super Bowl weekend, NFL teams can now fully focus on the upcoming season. The preseason comes as a chance at redemption for a majority of the struggling teams of last season with chances of rebuilding their squad and filling holes with Free agency and draft picks. However, the catch here is the salary cap.
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As rich and influential as the owners of the NFL teams are, the league over decades has maintained a salary cap to instill discipline and financial fair play. If not for the salary cap, a Jeff Bezos-owned team would offer a billion-dollar salary to all top players and form the Avengers in real life. Jokes aside, the salary cap announcement by the NFL is much awaited by fans and teams as it helps the latter in the preseason to manage their finances.
For example, the Las Vegas Raiders have a salary cap space of $35.25 million. The Raiders haven’t had the best of seasons and are surely in the hunt for a few high-profile players like Kirk Cousins. Cousins is the most expensive free agent in the market today, with reports of the QB demanding a salary of $40 million. In this scenario, an increase in the salary cap by the NFL acts as a major relief for the Raiders as it gives them breathing space to sign more important signings along with Cousins.
Last year’s NFL salary cap was $224.8 million. In the last 12 months, the league after the previous years of COVID slump has grown multifold in revenue. TV deals and gambling money have increased. Pandemic-incurred losses have also been subsided. Hence, a massive salary cap hike announcement was expected this year.
However, as per Pro Football Talk, the NFL wants to opt for a “smooth” increase in the cap limit rather than a massive spike. Hence, the outlet reports that the NFL is set to increase the cap limit by $25 million from last year — making this year’s cap limit a record high of $250 million (approx).
Seeing such exorbitant numbers as the salary cap limit is truly heartwarming. The league has had truly humble beginnings and seeing its meteoric rise to being the richest league in the world is truly magnificent. To put this into numbers, the salary cap per team in 1994 was a meager $34.6 million. In the next 30 years, the league’s salary cap has grown sevenfold, with an approximate $215.4 million rise in the salary cap. Achieving such high numbers in this time period symbolizes growth and profitability.
All said and done, what matters is the present. Coming back to the present, a $25.2 million hike in salary cap is surely going to be a relief for a lot of teams. Here is some data on the expected cap space left per team.
Despite The Salary Hike, Saints, Bills And Dolphins Have An Uphill Battle in Finance Management
As per data based on February 18th, Sportrac and Over The Cap report that nearly 11 teams from the 32 in total are on a negative salary cap. The highest negative salary cap holders heading into the preseason are the New Orleans Saints, with a negative balance of whopping $83,683,454. Joining the Saints are the Buffalo Bulls and Miami Dolphins with a negative salary cap balance of 51,898,203 and 51,277,109, respectively.
On the other hand, we have NFC East bottom rankers Washington Commanders with the highest positive salary cap with a whopping $73,649,626 in balance. Tennessee Titans, Chicago Bears, and the New England Patriots are next in line with all three having a positive salary cap balance in the range of $67-66 million. The common denominator between the top 4 is that all four of them finished at the bottom of their respective divisional standings this season.
Luckily for them, the rookies and free agency options this season look very solid. Moreover, the increased $25 million in salary cap will only make their lives easier. Here’s hoping these teams make the best use of their funds!
