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Less than a week ago, Adam Schefter broke the news that the NFL salary cap was poised to increase approximately 5% in 2014, from $123,000,000.00 to $130,000,000.00. Today, Pro Football Talk cites a source who says the 2014 cap ceiling for NFL teams could be quite a bit more:
Per the source, the cap could be a "few million" higher than $132 million. If this means $3 million more than reported, the cap could be as high as $135 million. That would amount to an 9.75 percent increase over last year, the biggest spike by far since the 2011 labor deal was negotiated.
The unnamed source went on to add that "the 2014 bump [of 9.75%] is expected to become the trend in future years." While the NFL has not confirmed any part of Schefter's report last week or PFT's report today--and as we saw last year, the estimates can be wrong--this constitutes big news if it's accurate.
If the source speaking to PFT has good information, that would mean your Houston Texans (and every other NFL team) would have approximately $9,000,000.00 more in cap room/dollars to spend in 2014. That's huge. Taking it further, if the cap experiences the same kind of proportionate increase the following season, the Texans would find themselves with nearly $12,000,000.00 in new cap space in 2015.
Suddenly, the prospect of signing J.J. Watt to the largest contract for a defensive player in NFL history doesn't seem quite as daunting as it did when the cap was $123,000,000.00. Of course, agents are also likely to adjust their expectations in a world that features 32 employers with that kind of newfound cap room. Your reaction?