AsylumGuido

Good news! It appears the upcoming cap number is going to be $10-$12 million higher than originally projected.

NFL Salary Cap Expected to be Higher Than Expected in 2021

CINCINNATI — The NFL's salary cap has yet to be determined for the 2021 season, but things appear to be trending in the right direction according to Tom Pelissero of NFL Network.

The NFL and the Players Association have already started negotiating the salary cap for next season. People around the NFL believe the cap could be higher than expected.

"Chiefs owner Clark Hunt told reporters this week the final number may not be set until 'hours before the start of the league year' [on] March 17," Pelissero wrote. "Some team officials believe (and surely hope) the cap will ultimately land closer to $185 million per club—if not a little higher—than the $175 million minimum the sides agreed to last summer as they braced for empty and mostly empty stadiums."

NFL Salary Cap Might Not Crash After All

This year, the league added two playoff teams, meaning two extra playoff games. Next year, the league schedule is expected to go from 16 games to 17 games. The Monday Night Football contract with ESPN expires after the 2021 season and contracts with CBS (for the AFC), Fox (for the NFC) and NBC (Sunday night) will expire after the 2022 season. Because the NFL is a ratings juggernaut, rights fees are expected to soar. According to Forbes, for instance, Fox’s $1.2 billion deal could almost double to $2 billion annually.

With boatloads of new money to become available, agents are cautiously optimistic there won’t be mass casualties with the average team being just $1.44 million beneath the $176 million projection.

“The pessimist sees difficulty in every opportunity. The optimist sees the opportunity in every difficulty.” — Winston Churchill