NFL Salary Cap Getting Bump For New Season, Saints Will Have to Trim As Usual

The NFL's salary could get as high as $250 million, which is good news for the Saints, but they'll have work to do to create space.

The NFL's salary cap is expected to rise in 2024 and could be as much as $250 million, according to Pro Football Talk's Mike Florio. His initial report hinted at $243 million and cited that it could be 'more', and later updated his column to reflect the higher number. The higher the number, the better the news for the Saints.

The process isn’t as easy as it seems. Every year, the league and the NFL Players Association negotiate the number, with various factors coming into play. In the past, it has been higher than perhaps it should have been; the year after the lockout, for example, it was believed that the league agreed to ensure that the cap would not fall in comparison to 2011, in order to avoid a mutiny within the union.

Currently, there’s a thought that the league wants to avoid a massive spike in the cap, opting instead for a “smoothing” of the cap limit as TV deals and gambling money increase and the losses from the pandemic slip from the books.

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We should get a finalized number next week at the Scouting Combine in Indianapolis. Last year's figure came in at $224.8 million, and New Orleans having to trim to get in compliance is nothing new. Depending on which site you reference, the Saints are around $80-84 million over the cap. Should the finalized number come in at the higher figure, they'd have to trim just over $75 million.

It's never a matter of if the Saints will get there, but rather how they'll hit the target goal and then create space for new players and rookies. Yes, they will sign players. Mickey Loomis and Khai Harley will undoubtedly headline the trimming with some input from Dennis Allen. The contract restructures should heat up very soon for the team as we get closer to the new league year that starts on Mar. 13.