2021 Salary Cap set to

[Hadez]

The NFLPA and NFL agreed to a min cap of 180 mil

The Broncos are currently over 31-39 mil under the cap. The exact number changes depending on which site one wants to look at. Broncos are good in cap space imo.

A lot of teams not so good.

Saints currently at 65 mil over.
Eagles 37 mil over
Rams 25 mil over
Chiefs 18 mil over

Even teams just over the cap need to make some cuts to sign draft picks and have the cap room needed to operate in 2021.

Very realistically all of these teams need to make some kind of cuts to be able to operate in 2021 under the current cap floor.

Saints
Eagles
Rams
Chiefs
Steelers 14 mil over
Falcons 12 mil over
Raiders 10 mil over
Vikings 6 mil over
Packers 4 mil over
Bears 2 mil over
Lions 1 mil over
Titans 1 mil under
Bills 4 mil under
Giants 8 mil under
Texan 10 mil under (10 mil under could be enough for draft picks and a little extra to sign players needed for injuries)


Now some teams like Jax (79 mil), Jets (75 mil), Pats (68 mil), Colts (54 mil), Bengals (46 mil), Wash (41 mil) and Panthers have similar cap space to the Broncos or better. So free agents just looking to get paid and not really caring about what team they go to will probably still get large deals.

A lot of teams will be cutting players. I think 2021 will be unusual in more players will become available at free agency where in previous years teams start signing their own players and players actually start to get taking off the top free agent lists. I think there will be a lot of free agents becoming available. With the reduced cap I think a lot of teams are going to try and get younger this year with draft picks and UDFA....or free agents available at bottom prices.

Lot of people talking about how the Broncos can actually move up significantly in the cap space department with just a few moves. I do not personally endorse some of these moves but here are a few...numbers are not exact but just estimates.

Von Miller - 4.2 mil dead cap, 18 mil cap savings (technically there is a club option)
Kareem Jackson - 2.8 mil dead cap, 10 mil cap savings (technically there is a club option)
Jurrell Casey - 0 dead cap, 11.8 mil cap savings
Melvin Gordon - 6.5 mil dead cap, 2.3 mil cap savings
Bryce Callahan - 1.7 mil dead cap, 6.8 mil cap savings
Nick Vannett - 0.875 mil dead cap, 2.7 mil cap savings
Jeff Driskel - 0.75 mil dead cap, 2.5 mil cap savings
Sam Martin - 1 mil dead cap, 2.7 mil cap savings
Royce Freeman - 0.25 mil dead cap, 1 mil cap savings
Duke Dawson - 0 dead cap, 1.1 mil cap savings


There are a few more with about 1 mil cap savings give or take.

Did not list anyone I consider part of our young drafted nucleus or people with dead cap hits larger than cap savings.

Overall point is I think Broncos can be players in what may be the biggest pool of free agents we have seen in a while as other teams will have to release players to get under the cap and/or get cap space to work in 2021.

Bronco free agents I think are something we need to consider

Shelby Harris UFA
Justin Simmons UFA
AJ Johnson - RFA
Phillip Lindsay - RFA

We have a lot of DBs on the free agent list. We can probably sign some of if we want but I think with the amount of players to become available we should wait and see.

[listopencil]

That $180 MIL is not the salary cap. That's the salary floor. From your article:

With the COVID-19 pandemic wreaking havoc, the expectation has been that the salary cap would fall significantly from 2020's $198.2 million budget. After years of increasing by tens of millions of dollars, the fall is expected to be precipitous. The new floor mitigates some of that decrease.


So we still don't know what the cap will be, but it will be higher than $180 MIL.

[broncolee]

That $180 MIL is not the salary cap. That's the salary floor. From your article:

With the COVID-19 pandemic wreaking havoc, the expectation has been that the salary cap would fall significantly from 2020's $198.2 million budget. After years of increasing by tens of millions of dollars, the fall is expected to be precipitous. The new floor mitigates some of that decrease.


So we still don't know what the cap will be, but it will be higher than $180 MIL.

The OP stated that $180 million is the minimum sal cap, which is correct.

“As you know, one aspect of the agreements negotiated last summer with the NFLPA to address operations during the pandemic provides that the 2021 Salary Cap will be no less than $175 million. Following discussions with the union that addressed both actual 2020 revenues and projected attendance for the 2021 season, we have agreed to increase the minimum Salary cap for the 2021 League Year to $180 million.”

The floor is something different and I think the article misuses the word floor at some point.

The salary cap hasn’t been determined yet, but it will be at least $180 million.

[listopencil]

The OP stated that $180 million is the minimum sal cap, which is correct.

“As you know, one aspect of the agreements negotiated last summer with the NFLPA to address operations during the pandemic provides that the 2021 Salary Cap will be no less than $175 million. Following discussions with the union that addressed both actual 2020 revenues and projected attendance for the 2021 season, we have agreed to increase the minimum Salary cap for the 2021 League Year to $180 million.”

The floor is something different and I think the article misuses the word floor at some point.

The salary cap hasn’t been determined yet, but it will be at least $180 million.

The article uses the word floor in the segment that I quoted. That's why I quoted that segment. I haven't seen any other articles discussing the cap with any numbers given out by the league. If you know of any I'd appreciate a link.

[broncolee]

The article uses the word floor in the segment that I quoted. That's why I quoted that segment. I haven't seen any other articles discussing the cap with any numbers given out by the league. If you know of any I'd appreciate a link.

And the article uses the word minimum as shown in the segment I quoted.

The floor is a different matter. That’s why I said the article misused the word. The floor is a minimum within the salary cap that teams are required to reach on average over the course of four years, I believe.

The point is, the OP correctly stated that the NFL and NFLPA have agreed to a minimum salary cap.

The OP pointed out that(with this minimum as a gauge) the Broncos have nearly $40 million of cap space. Once the actual number is calculated, they should have even more, assuming they don’t make any moves in the mean time.

[listopencil]

And the article uses the word minimum as shown in the segment I quoted.

The floor is a different matter. That’s why I said the article misused the word. The floor is a minimum within the salary cap that teams are required to reach on average over the course of four years, I believe.

The point is, the OP correctly stated that the NFL and NFLPA have agreed to a minimum salary cap.

The OP pointed out that(with this minimum as a gauge) the Broncos have nearly $40 million of cap space. Once the actual number is calculated, they should have even more, assuming they don’t make any moves in the mean time.

Yes. I know what the floor means. The author of the article may not. Regardless, we still don't know what the salary cap will be for this next season.

[Hadez]

180 mil may be the min or floor (does the wording matter?) but the only reason is it not lower is because the players agreed to play 2020 in large part because it was negotiated that the 2021 hit to the salary cap be spread over multiple years.

The talking heads on the Broncos youtube channel speculated the cap would be 185-187 mil

[broncolee]

Wording does matter because it can lead to misunderstandings and unnecessary arguments.

Whatever the truth is about the $180 million, it’s a good sign that the owners and players are able to work together on keeping things moving in the right direction.

[DiveInstructor]

Floor, minimum, whatever. Comical how people will argue a point instead of just saying, "yeah, I guess I could've worded that different."....ah, the internets....

I think what's really interesting is some of the best teams in the NFL are deepest in the red when it comes to cap space, and some of the crappiest teams in the NFL have some of the biggest cap spaces. The Broncos neighbors when it comes to cap space are the worst teams. Now they just released Casey, and they've increased their cap space significantly. All that great cap space doesn't mean your team is savvy....looks like it means your team is more concerned about saving money over winning.

I'm curious if they're going to go cheap on Miller and ask him to take a pay cut, when in reality they have plenty of money to continue to pay him in his final year? I wonder what the Broncos are going to do with all of that cap space? Is it positioning the team for a sale? And what big name pros that could significantly contribute to an SB run would want to come here, given the situation? Come to a cheap team who lately has turned away their best players instead of paying them, with bottom of the league performance out of the offense, its QB, and a coach and coordinators that scare nobody in the league? I sure wouldn't want to.

We might want to get used to living in the slums of the NFL, 'cause looking at the financial, staff, and player situations here along with the competition in the division isn't looking like sunshine and daisies.

[Hadez]

The cap has been set to 182.5 mil

2.5 mil above the earlier min/floor.

[GMTD]

Floor, minimum, whatever. Comical how people will argue a point instead of just saying, "yeah, I guess I could've worded that different."....ah, the internets....

I think what's really interesting is some of the best teams in the NFL are deepest in the red when it comes to cap space, and some of the crappiest teams in the NFL have some of the biggest cap spaces. The Broncos neighbors when it comes to cap space are the worst teams. Now they just released Casey, and they've increased their cap space significantly. All that great cap space doesn't mean your team is savvy....looks like it means your team is more concerned about saving money over winning.

I'm curious if they're going to go cheap on Miller and ask him to take a pay cut, when in reality they have plenty of money to continue to pay him in his final year? I wonder what the Broncos are going to do with all of that cap space? Is it positioning the team for a sale? And what big name pros that could significantly contribute to an SB run would want to come here, given the situation? Come to a cheap team who lately has turned away their best players instead of paying them, with bottom of the league performance out of the offense, its QB, and a coach and coordinators that scare nobody in the league? I sure wouldn't want to.

We might want to get used to living in the slums of the NFL, 'cause looking at the financial, staff, and player situations here along with the competition in the division isn't looking like sunshine and daisies.

Saving up for Watson maybe, should he become available?

[Hadez]

Looks like after the dust has settled we have approx 25 mil in cap space. Estimates are we will need just under 11 mil for rookie pool.

Jax only team with significantly more cap that us and they will need about 18 mil on rookie pool.

Not sure what some teams are planning to do to get their rookie pool and have the 5-10 mil extra cap space to work with in case of injuries but it looks like 1/3 of the NFL still needs to make some cap room to me. About 10 teams do not even appear to have enough cap to sign their rookies atm.