Regardless of how the NFL decides to handle the incoming financial losses incurred by the COVID-19 pandemic, the Miami Dolphins figure to be in a good place. The team, barring any unexpected big moves, will have in excess of $50M in salary cap at their disposal before the 2021 salary cap is adjusted. And, if the NFL players have their way, the massive losses in revenue this season will be spread out over the life of the league’s newly minted collective bargaining agreement — which would greatly minimize the salary cap reduction in 2021.
But NFL owners seem to favor ripping off the bandaid all at once, hoping to see the salary cap reduction eat up all of the financial losses in the immediate future.
NFLPA executive director DeMaurice Smith and president J.C. Tretter just sent this memo to agents, emphasizing the union wants to spread the impact of a projected multibillion-dollar revenue shortfall over an 11-year CBA, rather than in 2020 and 2021 as the NFL has proposed. pic.twitter.com/CO3xmldWLi
— Tom Pelissero (@TomPelissero) July 23, 2020
This is effectively a brand new collective bargaining negotiation and the league and NFLPA are short on time to come to an agreement. The good news? According to NFL Network’s Ian Rapoport, there was significant progress made on this front yesterday.
“After negotiating all day Thursday, the NFL and NFLPA made some real progress toward common ground, sources on both sides say. They aren’t there yet. But as training camp looms, sources say they are moving closer on the key issues with a deal in sight,” wrote Rapoport.
Regardless of how the league and NFLPA choose to handle the incoming losses of revenue and where it will hit NFL teams with their spending power, the Dolphins will be okay. The team isn’t too far into their spending window to be forced into making steep roster cuts to work their way back under a re-adjusted cap. And, given the wide range of potential outcomes, there figures to be some middle ground for both sides that would avoid seeing the NFL cut the 2021 salary cap by some $50-60M and taking cap losses all at once.
We’re likely to find a resolution to this issue sooner rather than later — because the timeline for training camp commands that these issues be buttoned up and decided. So keep an eye on the headlines, but rest easy Dolphins fans. No matter what direction this one swings, Miami won’t have to make any drastic cuts to the roster to compensate.