Report: NFL salary cap could drop by at least $40M in 2021

Important negotiations will have to happen to avoid this from happening.

The 2020 NFL season could be impacted significantly financially with the possibility of less or no fans in stadiums for at least part of the season, due to the COVID-19 pandemic. That could significantly impact the salary cap in 2021, according to NFL.com’s Ian Rapoport.

Rapoport reports the league is potentially looking at a drop of at least $40 million in the salary cap in 2021, depending on the revenue that comes in this season.

According to Rapoport, the league wants to avoid this and keep the salary cap flat, at worst. He suggests the league is thinking of potentially borrowing against future years and banking on new television contracts.

Moving forward, the league and the players association will have critical negotiations about how to handle the future cap and the impact of decreased revenue this season.

For the Arizona Cardinals, this is potentially why there has been no movement on contract negotiations for players like Patrick Peterson, Budda Baker, Kenyan Drake and DeAndre Hopkins and also their recent draft picks.

It is something worth paying attention to as the offseason progresses.

This year’s salary cap is set at $198.2 million.

[vertical-gallery id=440212]

Listen to the latest from Cards Wire’s Jess Root on his podcast, Rise Up, See Red. Subscribe on Apple podcasts or Stitcher Radio.

Ep. 268

[protected-iframe id=”b982993d8c20b3c1204a481770f7fbae-112738498-106269283″ info=”https://api.spreaker.com/v2/episodes/29016811/download.mp3″ ]

Ep. 267

[protected-iframe id=”682ebb6e7ef6b83ea73b8875d2f5241d-112738498-106269283″ info=”https://api.spreaker.com/v2/episodes/27243565/download.mp3″ ]