There has been increasing discussions in the past years about whether the salary cap in the National Football League (NFL) is real. A salary cap is an agreement that places limits on the amount of money teams can spend on players. According to nfl.com, the salary cap for the 2022 season will be set at $208.2 million.
It seems every year, there is one team that has many players on their roster with huge contracts, which means they are over the cap, correct? Wrong. NFL teams structure contracts in a way a player’s cap hit is not as large as their contracts seems to be.
Take the Los Angeles Rams, for example. After winning the Super Bowl, they were $22.5 million over the cap. Despite that, the Rams went out and signed linebacker Bobby Wagner on a five-year, $50 million deal, and also signed wide receiver Allen Robinson to a three-year, $46.3 million deal. This is when some started questioning cap space. But what people fail to notice is how the Rams structured these deals and other offseason moves to save cap.
According to Spotrac, Robinson and Wagner have only a combined $6.8 million cap hit despite signing big deals. The Rams have also saved cap by releasing, or trading players. They traded wide receiver Robert Woods to the Tennessee Titans which saved $13.5 million in cap, according to TheRamsWire. They also cut ties with their longtime punter Johnny Hekker which saved almost $4 million in cap, which is the most for any punter. Star left tackle Andrew Whitworth retired, saving the Rams $16 million in cap space. They also restructured tight end Tyler Higbee’s contract by converting his salary into a signing bonus, saving $4 million.
The Rams let outside linebacker Von Miller and wide receiver Odell Beckham Jr. walk in free agency, saving $1.5 million. Also leaving in free agency was cornerback Darius Williams, linebacker Ogbonnia Okoronkwo, defensive lineman Sebastian Joseph, and offensive lineman Austin Corbett saving almost $9.5 million.
Sometimes cap space can be complicated. There is a lot more to the salary cap than seeing lots of players on a team signing huge deals.
