2020 NFL salary cap will be $198.2, millions less than projected

The biggest news today was the NFL players agreed to the proposed CBA. Football will continue for the next decade, including with extra regular season and post-season games.

The second biggest news is the official cap numbers. They are low. Real low. All projections were a little north of $200 million, typically between $202 to $204 million.

This is a real problem for the Atlanta Falcons, the team with the second-worst cap situation. Atlanta desperately needed that space to sign some replacement-level players. Now they have even less space.

The team’s top-51 players total out to $196,089,266 per Over The Cap. This does not include an allowance to sign the rookies, projected by Spotrac to be about $7.3 million.

While all the numbers differ a bit, one thing is clear: The Falcons are in trouble.

If we look at Over The Cap and update the new salary cap, the Falcons have $2.1 million in cap space before adding the rookie class.

If we look at Spotrac and update the new salary cap, the Falcons have -$0.5 million in cap space.

The Falcons clearly need to make some moves just to sign rookies and add depth. We expect some veterans like Devonta Freeman, Allen Bailey, and Ty Sambrailo to be cut, and soon, but there may be some more painful moves to keep things out of the red. The team has hinted at some big spending in free agency but they remain one of the least able in the league.

The Falcons will certainly designate a few players as post-June 1st cuts to offset the cap hits and maximize their 2020 space. However, they may need to make additional moves to cover this unexpectedly low 2020 cap figure.