[Ironshaft]

COVID reduced the 2021 salary cap from a predicted ~$210m down to $175m.

That reduction of $35m in cap space put a lot of teams in a hurting cap position.

Teams need to have about $8m in clear cap space to transition from the off-season to the regular season: $2m for practice squad, $2m for spots 52/53 on their active roster and $4m in free space to sign street free agents or guys off their practice squad during the season.

Right now before even one rookie is signed or one veteran free agent re-signed, 17 of 32 teams are "OVER" the cap if you include the above $8m needed to transition.

Of the 15 teams not "OVER" the cap, 6 more have less than $10m of additional free cap space to sign their rookies, their own free agents and other team's free agents.

Of the remaining 9 teams, 5 will have between $11-27m to restructure their roster in the off season.

Only four teams have more:

JAX = $69.6m clear - $8m = $61.9m to spend on rookies and free agency
IND = $68.5m clear - $8m = $60.5m to spend on rookies and free agency
NYJ = $65.6m clear - $8m = $57.6m to spend on rookies and free agency
NE = $58.6m clear - $8m = $50.6m to spend on rookies and free agency

The next team, CIN has $35.6m clear - $8m = $27.6m to spend

And with the following teams WAY over the cap, there may be more quality free agents that hit the market than anticipated:

NO = $104m over the cap
PHI = $51m over the cap
LAR = $35m over the cap
ATL = $33m over the cap
GB = $31m over the cap
PIT = $28m over the cap

There are going to be a whole bunch more free agents chasing free agency dollars than teams have cap space to spend.

Buyers market.

It will be interesting to see how Ballard approaches the off season this year.