Even though the COVID-19 pandemic didn’t result in any game cancelations, it still hit the NFL hard.
The league felt it in their wallets, as games were played with limited (and in most cases, no) attendance. As a result, the NFL salary cap took a tumble. And while the 2021 NFL salary cap being set at $182.5 million was a win after early projections suggested $175 million would be the number, it was a significant decrease from the $198.2 million cap that was set in 2020. It was also far less than the $208 million teams were likely projecting before the pandemic reared its ugly head.
Now, as the league makes a climb toward a more normal year, the cap seems primed to follow:
If revenues call for a cap higher than $208.2M in 2022, excess revenues would be used to pay back the $17 million in player benefits that were canceled as a result of the COVID-19 amendments the league and union agreed to last July. (more)
— Dan Graziano (@DanGrazianoESPN) May 26, 2021
The 2019 cap (pre-COVID) was $198.2M per team, and at the time the cap was growing by about $10M per year. At that pace, the 2022 cap would have been about $218M. So $208.2M still isn't "caught up." But it would exceed the expectations of many who feared cap might stay flat.
— Dan Graziano (@DanGrazianoESPN) May 26, 2021
According to ESPN’s Dan Graziano, the NFL’s 2022 salary cap ceiling will be set at $208.2 million. To be clear, this isn’t to say that the cap number is set in stone. HOWEVER, what this *IS* saying is that the 2022 cap will max out at $208.2 million. If it hits that number, we’re looking at a 14 percent increase from the 2021 number. And even though it’s a few million bucks shy of what the 2021 number was supposed to be, the takeaway is that early estimations hint that league revenues are catching up.
This is good news for a number of teams around the league, but especially the Bears. As things currently stand, OverTheCap.com estimates Chicago’s football team is $219,852 under the cap. Considering they’ll need space to sign their draft picks, figure there will be some cap-clearing moves coming sometime soon. Moving forward, things are looking better for the Bears from a cap perspective. OTC estimates the team will have $39,884,818 in available cap space. If that holds, only 11 teams will have more than Chicago. On the other end of the spectrum, the Packers are projected to be $33,699,622 *over* the projected 2022 cap.
As if they didn’t have enough issues to deal with… 😈