NEW YORK — The NFL’s salary cap will be $182.5 million per team in the upcoming season, a drop of 8% from 2020.
The league’s loss of revenues due to the coronavirus pandemic caused the first decrease in the cap since 2011, which followed an uncapped season.
Free agency begins next Wednesday, though the “legal tampering” period starts Monday. The NFL is close to agreement on extensions of its broadcast contracts, but those deals won't affect the 2021 season.
Last summer, the players’ union and league agreed to a cap minimum of $175 million, but that number jumped by $5 million in February and was set at $182.5 million on Wednesday.
Now the scrambling begins for a number of teams that are significantly over the cap.
