NFL teams will have more spending power after the league announced the salary cap for the 2022 season, as ESPN’s Adam Schefter shared.
NFL’s 2022 salary cap will be $208.2 million.
— Adam Schefter (@AdamSchefter) March 7, 2022
Schefter tweeted, “NFL’s 2022 salary cap will be $208.2 million.”
It’s a huge jump from the $182.5 million cap last season, but the lower 2021 figure was mainly because of lower revenues due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
The $25.7 million increase is right within the projections done by experts in December.
With the worst part of the virus behind, expect the cap to increase steadily by $10-$12 million annually because of the new television deals that will start by 2023.
The 2022 figure is also roughly a $10 million increase from the 2020 amount.
The NFL salary cap was first instituted in 1994 to foster parity every year and the league established the inaugural cap at $34.6 million.
How The Higher Salary Cap Affects Teams
The higher cap eases the financial crunch for all franchises.
Those who are under the limit will have additional money to spend in negotiating deals with upcoming free agents.
Likewise, it gives the teams more flexibility to sign players to long-term deals.
On the other hand, the higher cap means that those over the cap will have less money to shed.
Based on the 2022 cap number, the Miami Dolphins have the biggest cap space at around $61.2 million.
The Los Angeles Chargers are second at $57.5 million while the Jacksonville Jaguars are third with $56 million.
Rounding up the top five are the Cincinnati Bengals ($48.7 million) and the New York Jets ($44.7 million).
Meanwhile, the New Orleans Saints have the biggest cap overflow at -$42.3 million.
The Green Bay Packers are at -$29.7 million while the Dallas Cowboys are at -$21.1 million.
Ten of the 32 teams are over the cap, including the Super Bowl LVI champions Los Angeles Rams.
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