NFL sets 2021 salary cap at $182.5 million
The NFL on Wednesday officially set the salary cap number for the 2021 season at $182.5 million. That’s $7.5 million above the original floor set in negotiations between team owners and the NFL Players Association prior to last season, and $2.5 million above the adjusted floor set in late February.
Based on the numbers reported by Sports Illustrated’s Albert Breer in his MMQB column, that should give the 49ers roughly $27.5 million in cap space.
Breer reported the 49ers had $28.02 million in room against a $183 million cap. Removing a half million from that number puts them at $27.52 million under.
According to Field Yates the 49ers’ adjusted cap number, which accounts for rollover from the previous season and missed incentives from 2020 player contracts, is $195.7 million. That’s the total amount the 49ers would be able to spend in the 2021 season.
While it’s not an ideal cap situation – the $182.5 million is down $15.7 million from last year instead of up $10 million – San Francisco is actually in a pretty good spot. Plus, the cap is set to spike over the next few seasons according to Charles Robinson of Yahoo! Sports, who reported the cap in five years could be back up to $250 million, which is where it would’ve projected out without a season impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic. That’ll give the 49ers a chance to sign some players this year with low cap hits that spread out over the next several years when the cap rises again.
Don’t expect San Francisco to be big spenders this year, but they have plenty of room to retain some key free agents and greatly improve their roster as they aim to get back to Super Bowl contention.
