2022 NFL Salary Cap Set at $208.2M Ahead of Free Agency; Increase of $25.7M

The NFL salary cap for the 2022 season was revealed Monday.

According to Lindsay Jones of The Athletic, the league has officially set the number at $208.2 million, which is an increase of $25.7 million per team from the 2021 salary cap.

This year's increase is also a $10 million jump from the last pre-pandemic salary cap of $198.2 million in 2020.

Last year's cap of $182.5 million was the lowest it's been since 2018, a reduction caused in part by teams playing in front of limited or no crowds to accommodate for health and safety protocols in the previous year.

The low cap number in 2021 likely influenced some players to take short-term deals in free agency in hopes of taking advantage of the increase that was predicted for 2022.

According to Jones, both the league and the players' association already expected the 2022 salary cap to be in the range of $208 million, but they left the door open to any "potential shortfall" in the event that any games had to be canceled.

The entire 17-game regular season and the postseason were played successfully with only a few games being rescheduled because of COVID-19, so there was no reason to reduce the cap any further.

When the money from the NFL's new television deals starts coming in, it would be likely to see the salary cap continue to increase as years go by. The league signed its new TV deals this past summer.