THURSDAY, 9:35am: According to Adam Schefter of ESPN.com (Facebook link), the NFLPA sent out a memo today to agents and contract advisors, expressing concern that the league is underestimating the cap’s likely growth for 2015. The union intends to issue its own projections in the coming months, based on “analysis of expected revenue.”
WEDNESDAY, 4:55pm: NFL team owners and executives attending the league’s annual labor seminar on Tuesday and the owner meetings in Dallas today have been informed that the 2015 salary cap for teams is currently projected to be $138.6MM, according to reports from Albert Breer of the NFL Network (Twitter link) and Jarrett Bell of USA Today. Bell indicates that execs were given a ballpark figure of $138-141MM, while Jason La Canfora of CBSSports.com (Twitter link) puts the estimated figures at between $138.6MM and $141.8MM.
The 2014 cap number for the league’s 32 teams is $133MM, so even an increase to about $138MM would represent a modest bump. But it’s worth noting that at this time last year, the projected figure for 2014 was $126.3MM — the actual ’14 figure ended up being nearly $7MM higher than that.
If 2015’s number exceeds these initial projections as well, it would fall in line with reports we heard way back in February and March. At that point, Adam Schefter of ESPN.com indicated that a cap number of over $140MM for 2015 seemed likely, while Mike Florio of Pro Football Talk suggested a ballpark figure of $145MM.
We’ll have to wait until well after the Super Bowl to learn the actual figures, but it seems certain that the salary cap will continue its healthy rise. That’s good news for teams dealing with oversized contracts and an abundance of dead money, or teams that will need to extend key free-agents-to-be. The Broncos (Demaryius Thomas, Julius Thomas, Chris Harris) and Lions (Ndamukong Suh) are two clubs that could have an easier time retaining their prospective free agents with a significant bump to the cap.