Tag: 2025 season

NFL is considering moving to an electronic first down system in 2025

The NFL could be saying goodbye to the chain system and saying hello to an electronic system to mark first downs in 2025:

In the 2025 season, the NFL could be measuring first downs electronically. This initiative is in its infancy, but the NFL is currently gauging how interested teams would be in implementing an electronic system. If the teams are interested, you could be saying goodbye to 10-yard metal chains as soon as 2025.

This electronic system’s usage would include first downs, sidelines and goal lines. In theory, this should provide a more accurate determination of if a player reached the line to gain for first downs and touchdowns. That same certainty should extend to reviewing a player possibly stepping out of bounds.

An interesting question is how will this new system change the responsibilities of the officials. Obviously, referees won’t be erased from the game. In these specific situations, though, it’s still unclear if they will spot the ball first or if the system will track the player’s movement. The latter seems the most likely in order to gain the most accurate results.

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What Payton Turner would make on his 5th-year option

What would Payton Turner would make on his fifth year option in 2025? The Saints have to make a decision on the backup defensive end by May:

Decision time is approaching for the New Orleans Saints and the fifth-year option for 2021 first-round selection Payton Turner. On paper, it has looked like an easy to decision to not pick it up and just give him this next season to break through and earn another contract.

What would it look like if the Saints were to pick up his option, though? The NFL recently released the fifth-year option amounts along with the updated salary cap, which could make the Saints’ decision easier.

Turner would be due $13,387,000 in 2025 if the Saints decided to pick his option up — and every dollar would be guaranteed. If it wasn’t clear before, it’s crystal-clear now that the Saints will very likely not exercise that option before the May 2 deadline. In his first three seasons Turner has racked up 29 tackles and just three sacks. He just hasn’t done enough to justify being tied to him for another season with a significantly higher salary cap hit than he has had up to this point in his career.

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NFL salary cap may see another huge jump again in 2025

The NFL salary cap may see another huge jump again in 2025. ESPN reports that league personnel see 2025 as another year helped by new broadcasting revenue:

The NFL announced good news for the New Orleans Saints and every other team on Friday with its historic salary cap: a $255.4 million spending limit per team that soared past projections that fans, media and the teams themselves had been working with to start the offseason.

While that’s huge for 2024 in itself, it might not be the last time the salary cap grows beyond expectations. This comes from ESPN senior NFL reporter Dan Graziano, who shares an interesting nugget about the future of the league:

“Since the league signed new deals with its broadcast partners in 2021, there has been a belief that 2024 and 2025 would be the first years in which the new TV revenue would really have a noticeable impact on league revenue.”

This lines up with past reporting; on top of the influx of money from the league’s broadcasting partners, deferred costs that kept the NFL going during the 2020 and 2021 COVID-19 pandemic-impacted seasons finally ran out in 2023. There’s nothing holding back the cap from climbing higher but team owners’ greed in keeping a larger share of profits for themselves than what goes to the players.

So where could the cap climb to in 2025? The experts at Over The Cap have not updated their initial projection of $260 million, which was based on past years’ recovery and growth after the pandemic. But that doesn’t reflect the unprecedented leap forward in 2024.

A better estimate comes from the analysts at Spotrac, who are working with a $273.3 million salary cap for 2025. That’s not as great an increase as we saw this offseason, but it does line up with what we’ve seen in recent years. And as ESPN suggests, NFL personnel are anticipating another unexpected leap ahead.

It’s early, and things will change as contracts are reworked and free agents are signed, but right now the Saints lead the league in players under contract for the 2025 season (44 of them). They’re also tapped to spend more money ($325.7 million) than anyone else, putting them further in the red than any team. But that’s always the case. So long as the salary cap continues rising — and by all accounts, it will — you can kick the can down the road.

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Fifth-year option price set for Cowboys’ Micah Parsons

From @ToddBrock24f7: Exercising a 5th-year option on Parsons will cost the team $24M and lock him in for 2025 while they work toward a long-term extension.

Among the Cowboys players awaiting a big decision from the club this offseason is Micah Parsons.

The linebacker/edge rusher isn’t going anywhere (except in the most wildly radical of what-if hypotheticals), but the former first-round draft pick is now entering the fourth year of his rookie deal. The decision for the front office is whether to exercise a fifth-year option on him to lock him in through 2025.

They almost certainly will. And with the 2024 salary cap set, the Cowboys know how much a fifth year of paying for Parsons’s services will cost them.

Several factors go into the calculation. Parsons’s three original-ballot selections to the Pro Bowl translate to a salary equal to that of a franchise tender at the position in question. That means Parsons stands to make $24.007 million in 2025 once the Cowboys elect to exercise his option.

Talk of a Parsons extension is expected to be a hot topic this offseason, although the team does have several other big-money deals to work on, too. It’s widely thought he’ll end up being the highest-paid defensive player in NFL history with his next contract, and his price tag will only go higher the longer the Dallas front office waits as they take care of other business.

Wideout CeeDee Lamb saw his fifth-year option exercised last offseason. The two sides were unable to work out a longer extension prior to the 2023 campaign. Lamb had a record-setting season, and now a new deal that will likely reset the receiver market is a priority in Dallas.

Expect the Cowboys to similarly pick up Parsons’s option and continue to work toward a longer-term deal.

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The Cowboys, technically speaking, could also pick up the fifth-year option on quarterback Trey Lance, who was also a first-round pick- by the 49ers- in that same 2021 draft and has a rookie deal entering its fourth season. But while the third-stringer may remain an intriguing project for the team, he hasn’t done nearly enough to warrant a $22.408 million fifth-year salary.

Teams have until May 2 to exercise their fifth-year options on 2021 first-rounders.

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