New Orleans Saints Forums - blackandgold.com - Report: NFL Salary Cap Is Rising

Here’s some good news for Saints fans, as news broke via ESPN’s Adam Schefter earlier today that the salary cap for the 2014 NFL season is expected to increase.

As per Chris Burke of SI.com:

INDIANAPOLIS — The NFL salary cap for next season is now expected to sit near $130 million, ESPN’s Adam Schefter reported Thursday. That’s a five percent bump from last year’s $123 million total and up more than $3 million from earlier projections, which set the 2014 cap at $126.3 million.

The news is particularly important for those teams that currently find themselves a little cash-strapped headed into free agency. The Chargers, Lions, Steelers, Saints and Cowboys all began the offseason over that $126.3 million line; all but the Cowboys and Steelers should now be clear of that projected line.

Let’s just say it gives the Saints a little more wiggle room, but not much. The team has made strides to get under the original salary cap figure after being roughly $14M over. Releasing Will Smith, Jabari Greer, and Roman Harper saved the Saints roughly $17M to begin with, and the recent projects had the Saints with about $4M in cap room to play with.

I’d expect the Saints to try to get at least under $10M under the cap before they think about using the franchise tag on Jimmy Graham, who is expected to fight the tight end franchise tag through arbitration.

Report: NFL Salary Cap Is Rising