The COVID-19 pandemic affected professional football in countless ways, financially for sure. Decreased revenue due to limited to no fan attendance in 2020 forced the league to lower the cap for the 2021 season. However, thanks to approval of full capacity this Fall it appears as though the league is inching toward getting back on financial track.
According to NFL Network’s Tom Pelissero, the 2022 NFL salary cap will be $208.2 million dollars. This represents a significant increase over the COVID-altered 2021 cap of just $182.5 million. The 2021 figure represented an eight percent drop from the 2020 figure, which altered the free agent landscape dramatically, helping allow the Patriots pursue their “uncharacteristically aggressive” shopping spree this past March. Well, that and going 7-9 last year kinda factored in, too.
So how does this potentially affect the 2022 Patriots? Fortunately our area has it’s own resident cap expert to help with such matters.
At first glance it appears as though the Patriots might be up against the cap for the 2022 season. However, there are players signed for that season, contracts that extend beyond 2021, that likely will come off the books. Patrick Chung, whose retirement will become official June 1, chief among them. So while the Patriots likely won’t have the surplus of free agency funds like they did this offseason, they likely won’t also be in “cap jail” either. Granted, should the players they signed and drafted this offseason pan out then the need to shake the roster up and write more massive checks won’t be as necessary.
Patience is the play for now.
Unless Julio Jones comes to town. Again, we’ll preach patience on that front, too.
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