NFL commissioner Roger Goodell held his annual pre–Super Bowl press conference on Thursday and while he didn’t receive any questions about the leaguers 2021 salary cap situation during his roughly 45-minute session, NFLPA executive director DeMaurice Smith was asked to comment on the subject during his press conference that followed the commissioner’s.
While Smith said he wouldn’t speculate about what the 2021 salary cap number might ultimately be six weeks from now, he did say he expects it to be higher than the possible collectively bargained floor of $175 million.
“We do have a $175 million floor,” Smith said. “Do I think we will be above the floor? I think there’s a decent chance we could be above the floor.”
While short and to the point, Smith’s short answer to the question gives a lot of weight to Tom Pelissero of the NFL Network reporting Wednesday night that the NFL’s salary cap number for the 2021 season is speculated to come in at around $185 million, or maybe even higher.
The fact that Smith went on record saying he expects the 2021 come in higher than the floor is obviously great news when it comes to the Pittsburgh Steelers, who are currently roughly $31 million over the agreed to floor amount of $175 million.
How much more above $175 million will the 2021 league-wide salary cap number wind up being? We’ll obviously have to wait and see. That wait, however, could be nearly six weeks, according to Pelissero’s Wednesday night report that stated teams might not find out the exact salary cap number for the 2021 league year until several hours before 4:00 p.m. EST rolls around.
Personally, I think we’ll have a much better grasp of what the 2021 NFL salary cap number will ultimately be in roughly four weeks from as more credible speculation from league sources is sure to leak. For now, just keep on rooting that final 2021 number comes in at $185 million or higher as such an amount would drastically help the Steelers six weeks from now.
