NFL salary cap will be at least $180M for 2021 season

Feb 7, 2020; Tampa, FL, USA; General view of the NFL Shield logo on the field before Super Bowl LV between the Tampa Bay Buccaneers and the Kansas City Chiefs. Kim Klement-USA TODAY Sports

NFL salary cap will be at least $180 million for 2021 season

By Blake Harper | Last updated 2/18/21

The NFL has informed teams that the salary cap for the upcoming season will be at least $180 million, raising the minimum from $175 million as the league figures out an exact figure with less than a month before the start of free agency.

Joe Siclare, the NFL's CFO, and Jeffrey Pash, the league's executive vice president, sent a memo to teams' chief executives, club presidents and general managers announcing the increase in the salary cap minimum as teams prepare for free agency and the draft over the next couple of months. ESPN's Adam Schefter shared the memo on Twitter.

"Following discussions with the union that addressed both actual 2020 revenues and projected attendance for the 2021 season, we have agreed to increase the Minimum Salary Cap for the 2021 League Year to $180 million," the memo read.

https://t.co/j6Gn90JoM5 pic.twitter.com/boqk0PWHvB
— Adam Schefter (@AdamSchefter) February 18, 2021

The memo also made it clear that this was not the "final Salary Cap" for the upcoming season but only assures teams that the salary cap will not fall below $180 million. The salary cap for 2021 will almost certainly be less than it was in 2020, which was set at $198.2 million, a $10 million increase over 2019. The number usually increases, but given the pandemic and its effect on attendance, the final number will likely be closer to the minimum.

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