4 NFL Teams That Will Benefit Most from Projected Salary-Cap Increase

The NFL salary cap for the 2014 season increased 8.1 percent to $133 million, and it is a foregone conclusion the cap will increase once again prior to the new league year on March 10.

The NFL informed team executives at last month’s owners meeting to expect next year’s salary cap to fall between $138.6 and $141.8 million, according to ESPN’s Adam Schefter. However, NFLPA Executive Director DeMaurice Smith thinks it will be higher than that, USA Today's Tom Pelissero reports (via Darin Gantt of Pro Football Talk).

A substantial increase, as projections have speculated, is far from breaking news, since Pro Football Talk’s Mike Florio reported prior to this season the salary cap could hit $160 million by 2016, but the official number will not be locked in place until closer to the new league year.

What we can piece together is the cap will be going up, which benefits every single team for a variety of reasons. For example, OverTheCap.com, operating under the impression of a salary cap at $140 million, lists seven teams in the red already for next season. These teams, two of which are analyzed more closely below, will get some cap relief before having to restructure contracts or cut players.

On the other hand, teams with cap space will have more to spend in free agency. And teams with the most cap space—both the Jacksonville Jaguars and Oakland Raiders are projected to have over $55 million, per OverTheCap.com—can identify their top targets and offer inflated contracts to sign who they want.

With that being said, this article highlights (in no particular order) the four teams which will benefit the most from the projected salary-cap increase.

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Seattle Seahawks

The Seahawks are in an enviable position on the field, seeking to repeat as Super Bowl champions for the first time since the New England Patriots did so in 2004-05.

They have also managed the salary cap as well as any team in the league due to a plethora of strong draft classes in the rookie wage era, and a couple of their selections from the 2011 draft have already been rewarded with long-term extensions.

This offseason, the Seahawks’ window to negotiate extensions with middle linebacker Bobby Wagner and quarterback Russell Wilson will open. For the former, Wagner will join cornerback Richard Sherman, safeties Kam Chancellor and Earl Thomas, defensive ends Cliff Avril and Michael Bennett and linebacker K.J. Wright as players from the NFL’s top-ranked total defense under contract for the foreseeable future.

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For the latter, the Seahawks will have to make Wilson one of the NFL’s highest-paid quarterbacks and will no longer be the beneficiary of having a star player at the most important position in sports playing for cheap.

The Seahawks will be able to keep their core players on defense and the face of their offense in the fold, and the increased salary cap will allow them to fill in the gaps at other positions and extend their Super Bowl window for years to come.

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Detroit Lions

The Lions had a run of high first-round selections just before the introduction of the rookie slotting system, and all of their top-two overall picks—Calvin Johnson, Matthew Stafford and Ndamukong Suh—from 2007-2010 made the Pro Bowl this past season.

Unlike the Seahawks, the Lions never had the luxury of hitting on draft picks and paying them below market value, and Johnson and Stafford both have cap hits of over $17 million in 2015 and over $20 million in 2016-17.

As a result, the 2010 No. 2 pick may be on the way out via free agency, although the Lions will do whatever they can to keep the best defensive player from the NFL’s No. 2-ranked total defense. One option is an enormous $26.9 million franchise tag; the other is signing him long-term to a deal which would likely surpass the $100 million contract J.J. Watt received from Houston last September.

Every dollar added to the 2015 salary cap is important for the Lions, who could also save money by cutting running back Reggie Bush, linebacker Stephen Tulloch and defensive end Jason Jones, per Kyle Meinke of MLive.com.

The Lions’ 2013 draft class looks to be among the best in recent memory, but its 2014 class has been a bust to date from top-to-bottom, and the Lions will need as many cheap, impact players as possible should they retain Suh in addition to Johnson and Stafford moving forward.

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New Orleans Saints

While the first two teams focused on teams needing to re-sign or extend players, the Saints are the first of two teams highlighted here in bad shape in the cap department that would benefit from the projected salary-cap increase.

The Saints, like the Lions, have a top-heavy roster, and Grantland’s Bill Barnwell had a piece last month describing how they ended up in “salary-cap hell,” though general manager Mickey Loomis recently said New Orleans is in a "better position" now than they were a year ago.

Shane Richardson provides a breakdown of the Saints’ financial situation, noting they are $23.2 million over the cap based on OverTheCap.com’s $140 million projection:

Former sports agent Joel Corry (via CBSSports.com) noted the Saints have five players taking up a combined $74.15 million of cap space and offered a handful of suggestions for next season, such as restructuring the contracts of defensive end Junior Galette, safety Jarius Byrd, tight end Jimmy Graham and quarterback Drew Brees.

He also mentioned offensive guards Jahri Evans and Ben Grubbs, wide receiver Marques Colston and linebacker David Hawthorne as candidates for release.

The Saints will be penny-pinching regardless of the official 2015 salary-cap number, but a substantial increase would create some flexibility for a team all-in on the next couple of seasons as it hopes to keep its Super Bowl window open for as long as the 36-year-old Brees is still under center.

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Pittsburgh Steelers

The Steelers are just barely in the red based on OverTheCap.com’s $140 million projection.

The offense only needs tweaking after finishing second in yards and passing and seventh in points in 2014, but the Steelers need to make big changes on the defensive side of the ball. Having a new defensive coordinator in former linebackers coach Keith Butler is the perfect occasion to make bold moves and revamp a defense that has regressed over the last two seasons.

In fact, ESPN.com’s Scott Brown reported strong safety Troy Polamalu, outside linebacker James Harrison, defensive end Brett Keisel and cornerback Ike Taylor face “uncertain futures” with the Steelers.

He also noted the Steelers plan on signing quarterback Ben Roethlisberger to a long-term deal, according to Steelers president Art Rooney II. Brown added that doing so “would create cap room because the Steelers could spread the signing bonus over the length of what figures to be Roethlisberger's final NFL contract.”

The Steelers would gain $3.7 million of cap room by releasing Polamalu and $5.6 million by cutting cornerback Cortez Allen after June 1, according to former agent Joel Corry.

Via the draft and free agency, the Steelers defense is going to look quite different in 2015, and the projected salary-cap increase will be beneficial for filling multiple holes on multiple levels.