The ins and outs of the NFL salary cap is an interesting one for a variety of reasons. While fans either care too much about it or don’t care at all. Like most things, somewhere in the middle is probably the healthiest way to think about the cap.
Salary cap space helps us understand what players the team can add in free agency or extend on their own team except there is a myriad of ways to work around it. From restructuring contracts, the use of void years or using bonuses to spread out cap hits, the salary cap has long been manipulated by teams.
In the end, it comes due but winning teams will do whatever they can to push that off as long as they can.
Another interesting aspect is the amount of cash a team spends. Far different than the salary cap, this is the amount of money directly paid to players in a given year. For 2021, the Cleveland Browns paid out the most according to the Players’ Association:
A look at each NFL club's cash spending for the 2021 season (as of 3/9/22) 💰 pic.twitter.com/UEB5GOBqwB
— NFLPA (@NFLPA) March 9, 2022
This list is an interesting one with the Super Bowl champions, the Los Angeles Rams, at the bottom of the cash spending and teams like the New York Jets and New York Giants spending $70 million or more than the Rams.
In the end, it is clear that Jimmy Haslam isn’t afraid to spend money to get things done. With the help of rollover cap space, Andrew Berry and company have been aggressive in adding players each of the last two offseasons.
With the 2022 offseason opening next week, we will find out just how aggressive Berry can be again and just how much cash Haslam will be shelling out to the players.
