The Pittsburgh Steelers could certainly use an extra $2 million in cap space in 2014 and according to Jason Cole of the National Football Post, every team in the league might get that extra cap room if the NFLPA decides to use salary cap option that they have at their disposal.
As Cole reports, the current conservative projections have the 2014 cap number per team coming in at $126.3 million, which would mark a fifth straight year that it has come in under the previous CBA high-water mark of $128 million. Should that indeed wind up happening, the players union could use the $2 million option to boost the cap to at least $128.3 million. This option was provided to them by the owners in return for them not filing charges of collusion against the NFL for actions prior to the current CBA.
NFLPA spokesman George Atallah confirmed to Cole that the $2 million option does indeed exists, but wouldn’t say whether or not the union was actually considering using it at this point in time.
Teams will not know where the exact 2014 salary cap number will come in at until mid-March, the start of the new league year, and apparently no decisions will be made by the NFLPA until then.
$2 million in cap space might not sound like a whole lot, but when it comes to the Steelers it really could make a big difference. This is certainly something to monitor over the course of the next few weeks and it’s also good to hear that that the current projected cap number of $126.3 million is being considered a conservative number right now as every little cap penny helps.
