After months of speculation the NFL salary cap has finally been set at $182.5 million for the 2021 season.
The $182.5 million cap is slightly higher than expected, as the floor for the season was previously set at $175 million before the start of the 2020 season. Some thought it could come in as high as $185 million, but it fell short of that.
The $182.5 million cap should put the Eagles at around $27 million over the cap, a hole they have to dig out of before March 17th at 4 p.m. EST. when the new league year begins. The Eagles actual salary cap comes in at around $207 million as they rolled over around $24.5 million from the 2020 season, but that still leaves them around $27 million over the cap.
The cap coming in at $182.5 million is considerably lower than every team planned for. All teams, including the Eagles, make decisions around their salary cap years in advance. If there was no COVID-19 pandemic, the cap likely would have come in at around $208 million for the 2021 season — $10 million more than the $198 million it was for the 2020 season.
Instead, the massive revenue loss caused it to come in at $182.5 million — roughly $25.5 million lower than expected.
Getting out of that $27 million hole should only take a few more moves by Howie Roseman and the Eagles.
New deals are expected soon for Lane Johnson and Brandon Graham. The duo have a combined cap hit of just under $36 million. It will be interesting to see how far into the future the Eagles want to commit to Johnson and Graham, but it is possible they wipe out most of the $27 million remaining by redoing just those two contracts.
Other moves coming that could open up space is the release of Zach Ertz, receiver Marquis Goodwin and possibly a new deal for Derek Barnett.
While other moves are possible, those are the five names to watch over the next few days as the Eagles complete the work to get under the cap.
You can reach Eliot Shorr-Parks on Twitter at @EliotShorrParks or email him at esp@94wip.com!
