NFL News NFL Cap Increases by $22M for 2025

[Ross12]

That’s exactly it. Most teams have planned on a cap in $275-$280m range. As you mention, OTC factored in $279M in all of its estimates.

The issue last year and some other years was when the actual salary cap increase significantly exceeded what was anticipated. That allowed for teams to not cut players that they otherwise were planning on in order to fit into the cap, and so there weren’t as many good players hitting the market as expected. Right now, it seems like everything is lining up with expectations, so I don’t see a reason to change the analysis that’s been done to this point.

Yeah, all of those 10-15 teams in tougher cap shape will be cutting players to get in better shape, or create more space to try to sign a big name or two themselves, which will increase the overall quality and depth of this free agent class. That's good for the Pats, who likely want to sign a lot of mid-level guys to bolster their overall roster.

 

[jmt57]

With a higher cap, more teams will be able to place a franchise tag on a player.
That obviously benefits the existing team, to the detriment of the have-nots like the Patriots.

However, that will only apply to a handful of players.
The Patriots still have more available cap space than other teams - far more, in many cases.
Therefore they should still be able to outbid other teams for free agents.

The Patriots just need to revise all of their estimates upwards - something that the novice 2024 front office failed to do (in my opinion).


Robert and Jonathan can't hide behind the excuse that the team was unable to sign free agents because of a cap increase again.
And they certainly can't again rationalize that so much money was spent re-signing players, because that is definitely not the case this year.

 

[lancerman]

The league was way better when teams actually had to manage the cap and mediocre players weren't getting insane contracts like Robert Hunt last year. Seriously, who the f*** is Robert Hunt? Back in the day, this would be a cap crippling contract.

If the NFL had a hard cap like the NBA, it would help stop this nonsense.

NBA has the luxury tax and max contracts you can give stars.

There was a 8 year period where whoever had Lebron won the East. and 4 of those years Golden State won the West (and one year after that), and the one year Golden State didn't go all the way they ****ed the league by getting Durant.

You didn't even need to watch the season in that era, everyone knew the finals before the season started.

I'll take the NFL over that.

 

[JohnJH]

Well, even with the increase, the Rams still can't afford to Tag Alaric Jackson. That doesn't mean he'll sign here. But, it does mean that unlike Higgins who will be Tagged, at least they'll still have a shot at getting Jackson.

 

[JayNM]

We need to break the market, but this isnt news

Now we just add couple of millions per signee

 

[Hugepatsfan]

Yeah this is different than last year. The cap spike that hurt us last year as a team with cash to spend was that it was an UNEXPECTED jump in the cap. It led to teams having a sudden ability to keep more players than expected. This is an increase over last year, but it's in line with what was expected and what all the speculation on who teams can/can't afford to keep is based on, so it shouldn't change as much.

 

[DaBruinz]

Pats screwed again with huge salary cap bump to 282 musd

Every team will have lots of $ to throw around
Even teams in salary cap hell thrown a life line

Yes. The league increased the cap to PURPOSELY screw the Patriots..


*SMH* Do you understand how stupid that sounds?

OvertheCap had the Cap going up to 272.5M. The articles say it will be between 277 and 281.. So an extra 5-9M above what they'd originally projected. So, it's not all that much extra..

Furthermore if you read the memo the NFL sent out, the "increase" is actually because of a deferral of funds by the NFLPA.

 

[XLIX]

Pats screwed again with huge salary cap bump to 282 musd

Every team will have lots of $ to throw around
Even teams in salary cap hell thrown a life line

This doesn't screw the Patriots.

The Patriots screwed themselves by not being ready for it.

 

[XLIX]

Seriously, who the f*** is Robert Hunt?

Mike's brother.

 

[Hyped]

I don't see the issue. We still have a ton more money to spend than any other team

The issue is free agents like Higgins, Sweat, Staley, etc...are now more likely to resign with their teams unless we offer an astronomical amount.

Before this increase...I was thinking 40M AAV for Higgins would get it done....now I think we gotta bid up to 45M AAV and make him the highest paid WR in the league in order to pry him away from the Bengals. Sounds like we are now going the Samuel/Kupp route and taking the Missouri WR in round 2...

 

[RobertWeathers]

The issue is free agents like Higgins, Sweat, Staley, etc...are now more likely to resign with their teams unless we offer an astronomical amount.

Before this increase...I was thinking 40M AAV for Higgins would get it done....now I think we gotta bid up to 45M AAV and make him the highest paid WR in the league in order to pry him away from the Bengals. Sounds like we are now going the Samuel/Kupp route and taking the Missouri WR in round 2...

We are only talking a few million...

I understand the economic theory of more money avail = bigger contracts angle but I don't think that is necessarily true in all cases.

Some teams are disciplined in how much they spend and on whom (Philly). Others still won't (CIN). Others still can't (Saints, Dallas).

They won't go after Higgins if he is avail. If the really wanted a WR1 they would have overpaid for Ridley or Aiyuk last year.

Put the Pats in the "won't" category.

 

[Toofy]

The issue is free agents like Higgins, Sweat, Staley, etc...are now more likely to resign with their teams unless we offer an astronomical amount.

Before this increase...I was thinking 40M AAV for Higgins would get it done....now I think we gotta bid up to 45M AAV and make him the highest paid WR in the league in order to pry him away from the Bengals. Sounds like we are now going the Samuel/Kupp route and taking the Missouri WR in round 2...

What 40 million aav. What are you smoking. Nothing more than 33 million at tops.

Chase will get 40 million. Higgins is probably the 20th -30th best wr and real pricing on that is 26-28 million with overpay taking to 33 million.

 

[ctpatsfan77]

I don't see the issue. We still have a ton more money to spend than any other team

It hurts the Patriots a little bit in that every team has a little bit more money to spend, so every team has a slightly better chance of having players they want to hang on to stay rather than hit FA.

 

[RobertWeathers]

It hurts the Patriots a little bit in that every team has a little bit more money to spend, so every team has a slightly better chance of having players they want to hang on to stay rather than hit FA.

I get it. I posted earlier how I see it. We have more as well. Kind of a wash.

 

[Hyped]

What 40 million aav. What are you smoking. Nothing more than 33 million at tops.

Chase will get 40 million. Higgins is probably the 20th -30th best wr and real pricing on that is 26-28 million with overpay taking to 33 million.

Not smoking anything…unless you count edibles, .

The cap keeps rising and rising…we are gonna see crazy deals…especially if the Pats have to have the player.

 

[lancerman]

The only reason this "kinda" hurts the Patriots is because we put ourselves in a ****ty situation where we used having a lot of cap space as some silver lining to get out of the talent problem this team has had for the last 6 years so anything that could effect how good free agency is by defacto limits who the Pats can get. Just like how Tee Higgens getting tagged is a blow because he was supposed to be the big free agent this off season.

Having cap flexibility is good. Having a ton of cap space just means you have a problem with not a lot of players worth keeping or worth giving good contracts to.

 

[maust]

Pats screwed again with huge salary cap bump to 282 musd

Every team will have lots of $ to throw around
Even teams in salary cap hell thrown a life line

Ahh Sam, ever the excitable fellow. Have you ever considered the possible benefits of Prozac or Valium?
At most the cap will be $3-5M than the projections everyone was working off.
Teams in 'cap hell' haven't been thrown anything much more than a shoelace

 

[Patsgofor4]

What 40 million aav. What are you smoking. Nothing more than 33 million at tops.

Chase will get 40 million. Higgins is probably the 20th -30th best wr and real pricing on that is 26-28 million with overpay taking to 33 million.

There are not 20 WRs who are better than Higgins and 30 is an even more absurd number. He's in the 10-15 range.

 

[Toofy]

There are not 20 WRs who are better than Higgins and 30 is an even more absurd number. He's in the 10-15 range.

Fantasy football PPR rankings for 2024: Wide receiver

2024 fantasy football draft rankings from Matt Bowen, Mike Clay, Tristan H. ****croft, Daniel Dopp, Eric Karabell, Liz Loza, Eric Moody and Field Yates.

www.espn.com

Again this is no exact science but you can find Higgins ranked around 28. Give or take I would say he is probably closer to 20-24.

 

[ALP]

The league was way better when teams actually had to manage the cap and mediocre players weren't getting insane contracts like Robert Hunt last year. Seriously, who the f*** is Robert Hunt? Back in the day, this would be a cap crippling contract.

If the NFL had a hard cap like the NBA, it would help stop this nonsense.

The nba does not have a hard cap…

The nfl has the hardest cap of the 3 major leagues…