The Salary Cap Is Set, How Much Can The Bills Spend In 2021?

Many teams have been waiting to see what their salary cap would be before they made any really big moves this season. That wait is over. The salary cap has been announced.

If you aren't a sports person, a salary cap is essentially an agreement that puts a limit on the amount that any team can spend on all of the players' salaries that are on the roster. This will, in theory, make it an even playing field for every team. That way, a team with an incredibly wealthy owner cannot just go out and buy up all the best players and dominate year after year.

For the past seven years, the salary cap has risen every year by $10 million or more per team. But according to Kevin Patra from NFL.com, this year is the first year that it is actually going to go down. Because teams weren't able to sell tickets at their games due to COVID, they weren't able to bring in as much revenue as they normally do, and therefore will have to limit the cap.

The cap number is set at $182.5 million dollars.

That is a lot of money. But it is a big drop from the $198.2 million cap in 2020.

So what does that mean for the Bills?

It means that some players might be cut in order to make room. Already, center Mitch Morse has agreed to a $2 million reduction in his contract to stay with the Bills. We might see more of that too. Restructured contracts might become a thing.

And you're going to see it start happening soon as teams prepare for the new year. This next week could be a busy one leading up to free agency.