With the coronavirus pandemic financially impacting the sports world, there is a lot of uncertainty surrounding the salary cap for the NFL in 2021. After seeing the NFL hit a $198.2 million figure per team in 2020, next season’s cap figure could go down to $175 million.
Regardless, it’s been widely known that the Jags will be fine in terms of cap space. Often in 2020, they were projected to have the most cap space for next season, which made their head coaching and general manager vacancies more enticing than they already were.
According to ESPN’s Field Yates, a part of the Jags’ total cap figure for 2021 will be a roll over figure of approximately $23.4 million, which would be the fourth-highest amount. That’s a figure that’s also well above the league average as the Los Angeles Rams are right in the middle with a $5.67 million roll over figure.
A look at how much cap space each NFL team rolled over to 2021, from the Browns ($30,366,604) to the Ravens ($586,822).
The NFL will audit these amounts after calculating incentives and cap credits from this year. The final amounts will be added to each team's cap for 2021. pic.twitter.com/cKen1bbgJ5
— Field Yates (@FieldYates) January 20, 2021
Per Spotrac, the Jags will be first in the NFL with a salary cap figure of $74.6 million if the NFL salary cap amount drops to $175 million. Of course, that’s largely due to all of the huge contracts they traded last season, like those held by A.J. Bouye and Calais Campbell. They also avoided having to pay defensive end Yannick Ngakoue his franchise tag salary ($19.316 million) as he was traded to Minnesota.
When looking at who is on the roster now, only four players are projected to have a cap hit figures over $9 million. Those players are center Brandon Linder ($9 million), linebacker Joe Schobert ($9.9 million), linebacker Myles Jack ($12.1 million), and guard Andrew Norwell ($15.5 million).
The Jags could also save approximately $9.9 million if they released players like guard A.J. Cann and tight end Tyler Eifert (contract option). It also wouldn’t hurt to keep both if that’s what the present regime wants to do, too.
As for their pending free-agents, the notable players the Jags may have to decide on are left tackle Cam Robinson, receiver Keelan Cole, and cornerback Sidney Jones IV. Once they decide on them, there should be no shortage of available cap space to address their many needs and perhaps get some help for the quarterback most expect them to take: Trevor Lawrence.