The Dallas Cowboys now know how much work they have to do ahead of themselves to return to being competitive in 2021. Although it is not yet been made official, teams around the league apparently have a pretty good idea where the salary cap is going to land. After setting a minimum of $175 million during negotiations last season, to prepare for a 2020 season with all stadiums losing most if not all attendance revenue, the number will be slightly higher.
According to ESPN’s Adam Schefter, league sources say the number is expected to be between $180 million and $181 million.
Though the NFL’s salary cap is not expected to be officially set until next month, league sources believe it will be roughly $180-$181 million. Throughout the past season, many expected it to be around $175 million, but it now is projected to come in slightly higher, per sources.
— Adam Schefter (@AdamSchefter) February 7, 2021
The NFL and NFLPA are currently negotiating towards a final number. There was talk throughout the regular season the number might creep up towards $195 million, with an eye on the coming new television deals, but in recent months that talk had been tempered with more realistic options. Still, recent scuttlebutt had a target of around $185 million, so this number is still below that.
When the NFL and NFLPA agreed to a reduced cap, the conversation was centered around possibly deferring the impact of the lost revenue from ticket and gate sales — and of course the related concession and merchandise sales losses that go with empty stadiums — into future seasons. It is unknown at this time whether or not this figure will also have lower caps in future seasons attached to it.
In 2020, teams worked with a $198.2 million cap. Before the pandemic changed the way the world operates, estimates for the 2021 cap were around $210 million or higher.
Teams use future cap projections in how they structure base-salary escalations. Contracts written over the previous three-to-four years expected the cap to rise, and many teams are going to have to make decisions on salary reduction mechanisms.
Dallas is among them, including trying to find the room to place a second-consecutive franchise tag on quarterback Dak Prescott. After playing for $31.4 million in 2020, another tag will take up $37.7 million of space in 2021. As soon as Prescott signs the tag, that money will be applied to the Cowboys’ cap figure.
Dallas is rolling over approximately $25.4 million of unused cap space from 2020. That gives the team around $205 million of total space to use. They have 61 players currently under contract, and in the offseason the NFL counts the Top 51 salaries towards the cap. Dallas has $178 million tied up to those players according to cap website Over the Cap.
They also have over $9 million in dead money tied into bonus payments given out to players no longer on the roster such as Travis Frederick and Gerald McCoy. This brings their total liability to $187 million, leaving around $18.4 million to use on free agency.
That’s not enough to tag Dak Prescott.
A long-term deal with Prescott could bring his 2021 cap hit to significantly less than that, but it will have to be struck before the start of the league year on March 17 or else Dallas will have to restructure other player’s deals or release guys in under to retain control of Prescott.
This doesn’t even bring into the conversation of having to sign their own guys or outside free agents, which will require more space on top of whatever is carved out for Prescott’s situation.
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