Decreasing the 2021 wage cap from $ 198.2 million to $ 182.5 million – an unprecedented discount of $ 15.7 million per staff – creates apparent challenges for NFL groups. These challenges are exacerbated by the truth that NFL groups have grown accustomed lately to the minimal cap progress of $ 10 million per 12 months.

So the distinction between the deliberate and precise cap for 2021 will not be $ 15.7 million. It is at the least $ 25.7 million. Groups negotiate contracts primarily based on the anticipated progress of the cap. Earlier than the pandemic, there was no purpose to imagine the cap would not proceed to climb, by at the least $ 10 million.

Certainly, annually from 2013 to 2020, the cap elevated by at the least $ 10 million per 12 months. This progress will most definitely return in 2022.

However even when the cap will increase by $ 10 million from 2021 to 2022, it should nonetheless be at the least $ 25.7 million behind what it will have been, since progress in 2022 would have added to progress in 2021.

That is why so many groups scramble to take care of a reduce cap. Whether or not they’re making an attempt to boost the cap or making an attempt to have sufficient room to do free company enterprise after which signal draft picks, this $ 25.7 million change creates a significant pinch for many groups.