The Tennessee Titans and the rest of the NFL are facing an uncertain financial future due to the COVID-19 pandemic and the likelihood that the league will lose revenue, which will lead to a lower salary cap in 2021.
The biggest cause for lost revenue will be reduced attendance. While some teams figure to have at least partial capacity for home games, others won’t have any fans attending games.
The floor for the 2021 salary cap is $175 million, down from the $198.2 million it is in 2020. However, it is possible the cap could be higher depending on how things go during this coming season.
Jason Fitzgerald from Over the Cap recently outlined what every team in the NFL will have to spend in both scenarios.
For the Titans, they’ll have $7.5 million to spend with a $175 million cap limit, and $22.5 million if the cap is reduced to $190 million. Of course, these figures don’t include cuts Tennessee can make.
The Titans do have some key free agents to think about next offseason, including inside linebacker Jayon Brown, tight end Jonnu Smith and defensive lineman DaQuan Jones, to name a few.
A heavily reduced salary cap will make bringing those players back even more difficult. The sheer uncertainty surrounding next year has already led to Titans general manager Jon Robinson saying the team could be hesitant to hand out extensions prior to the start of this season.
As Forbes’ Mike Ozanian estimated, the Titans could lose as much as $110 million of their $394 million annual revenue should no fans attend games. Recent reports have suggested that the Titans are looking for 25 percent capacity, which if accepted would obviously reduce that number.
Navigating next offseason won’t be easy by any stretch, but at least the Titans seem to be in good hands with Robinson and have a healthy enough cap situation to work through it.
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