As the offseason approaches next month, the 2022 salary cap picture is becoming clearer. The Falcons, who began last offseason with a major cap deficit, will get some relief next year as the NFL rebounds from the COVID-19 pandemic which affected the 2021 cap ceiling.
The 2022 salary cap is expected to have a ceiling of $208.2 million, a large increase over last year’s $182 million.
The 2022 NFL Salary Cap is expected to reach the max of $208.2M — which means spending should be back.
My story with @TomPelissero on the return of economic normalcy: https://t.co/INu4NnAQIw
— Ian Rapoport (@RapSheet) December 5, 2021
For the Falcons, this is very good news. The active cap spending right now is roughly $180 million for 30 players. That’s a $28.2 million difference between the projected cap space and active spending.
However, the dead cap of Julio Jones takes up over 50 percent of that available cap space to knock it back down to around $13 million. Dante Fowler will also have a dead cap hit of $4.6 million, but his transaction will cancel itself out once it moves from active roster to dead money after his voided year kicks in.
As I just mentioned, the Falcons only have 30 players on the active roster for the 2022 season. To get to the 51-player threshold, expect them to make more bargain-bin signings as they did during last year’s offseason. However, by making a few adjustments to the players who are under contract next season, it could increase funds and put the team in a good spot to make a splash signing or two.
At the same time, the Falcons do need to be careful about which players they restructure with in order to avoid further hampering themselves down the line as they have in the past. Additionally, the draft class will also have to be accounted for and could cost anywhere between $5-8 million. Obviously, the higher the pick, the higher the cost.
So, while the 2022 cap increase is definitely good news for Atlanta, there is still plenty of work for general manager Terry Fontenot to do in order to make this team competitive on the financial front.
It could take another year or so before the Falcons can really free themselves from residual issues created by the previous regime.
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