When the NFL announced today that the salary cap was going to increase from $224.8 million to 255.4 million dollars, teams all over the league took a deep breath of relief and started to crunch the numbers of what they could possibly do to build up the best possible roster.
But now the question looms: will teams be able to afford better talent/more players, or is each player going to expect to make more money, essentially voiding the new amount? The answer may be somewhere in the middle.
The Ability to Get/Retain Talent in the NFL
In some cases, some teams are definitely going to be able to upgrade their rosters. Let’s take the Texans for example. C.J. Stroud is on a rookie deal, as well as just about every player on the roster. In fact, the Texans only have four players currently on their roster who are averaging more than $10 million and another five players between $5 million to $10 million. Every other player makes less than $5 million.
The Texans are a very young team that can definitely now go out and pay for a star veteran who will bring experience and talent to the team. With their roster last year ($172 million) plus the new cap, the Texans have about 83 million dollars of surplus now to get players, draft players, and add incentives.
Compare that to a team like the Cowboys, who are trying to figure out a massive deal with Dak Prescott. The Cowboys have seven players averaging more than $10 million. Prescott alone, with his $40 million (and that could go up to $60), is being paid more than C.J Stroud, Will Anderson, Derek Stingly Jr., Robert Woods, and Jimmie Ward combined.
For the Cowboys, who are already at a $260 million total and over the cap, it allows them not to have to make as many drastic cuts or work as hard to renegotiate contracts. The Cowboys were (and still are to a degree) in serious trouble this off-season because the roster is only getting older, which means more money demands.
Players Demanding More Money
Think NFL players make too much money? It’s about to get even higher. The idea and thought of teams getting more money and thus being able to afford better and more players is a great idea, but it’s only a matter of time before some players start to demand significantly more than what they are currently making.
Players like Kirk Cousins, Leonard Williams, Chris Jones, and Mike Evans are all players who are hitting free agency this off season and can now demand salaries that have never been seen before. All it will take is one of these players to get a massive pay raise, and it will become the norm for the entire league.
Conclusion
The salary cap increase is going to help out most teams for one reason or another. This is particularly true because most had projections of the salary cap coming in millions of dollars less. With the NFL being a 365-day-a-year industry, many teams got a very nice surprise and felt a new sense of opportunity following the news.
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