The NFL salary cap will eclipse $150 million for the first time in 2016, jumping up from $143.28 million in 2015 to $155.27 million, the NFL Players Association confirmed on Monday.
NFL salary cap officially set at $155.27 million in 2016
A jump of $12 million in salary cap space for each team means record contracts are likely on the way for players.
Kirby Lee-USA TODAY Sports
It’s an increase of about $12 million for the salary cap, which jumped from $123 million in 2013 to $133 million in 2014. The continued jump is a reflection of soaring revenue for the NFL, with 48 percent of the annual revenue given to the players per the collective bargaining agreement in 2011.
The total for 2016 didn’t come without controversy, though. An independent arbitrator ordered the NFL to return more than $100 million to the pool that it shares with players, after it was found that the league was using a loophole to file funds away where they didn’t have to be shared.
With the addition of more than $100 million to the pool, the salary cap was increased by about $1.5 million, spreading out another $50 million to be spent on players.
The rising salary cap means plenty of cap space for teams to spend in free agency, with seven teams holding more than $50 million in free spending money for the 2016 season, according to Over the Cap. The Jacksonville Jaguars lead the way with $80 million of room, with the Oakland Raiders not far behind at more than $74.5 million in space.
Much of that extra money comes from estimated carryover from unused cap space in the year prior. The NFL Players Association will likely announce the official adjusted salary cap for each team in March.
A salary cap’s goal is to provide a league with parity by keeping spending between all teams relatively even. With an upper spending limit set and a spending limit floor of 89 percent that must be reached, the NFL doesn’t have equivalents of MLB teams like the New York Yankees or the Oakland A’s, with the former consistently carrying a payroll of more than double the latter.
With spending between NFL teams generally close to even, another $12 million in cap space for each team means contracts for players are likely to reach new highs in the 2016 offseason.
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