NFL Announces 2015 Salary Cap: Latest Details, Comments and Reaction

The NFL announced its projections for the 2015 salary cap, and it looks as though NFL teams will have a little bit of extra wiggle room under the cap this season.        

Adam Schefter of ESPN initially had the report, noting the number would be between $140 million and $143 million.      

On Monday, NFL Network's Ian Rapoport reported the official number:

Rapoport also provided details on the final franchise tag values:

Tom Silverstein of The Journal Sentinel reported more on the projected cap on Feb. 20:

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"The cap number will not be officially set up by us," Smith said. "We have a share of revenue deal. You take all of revenue, you allocate our share and you divide it by 32. That's what salary cap is. 

"But the way the cap is set, we'll have our projections on revenue and they'll have their projections on revenue, and sometimes it's not long fights, but sometimes there are fights over what constitutes revenue and we get together and fight over that and that's how the number actually comes out."

"We're comfortable with our projection of the salary cap being in the $143 (million) range," Smith said. "I think that's important for a couple reasons. Last year, bizarrely we had a few owners come out before this meeting and talk about a flat salary cap that ultimately jumped $10 million."

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That may not seem like a ton of money, but for teams cutting it close at the cap, having a few extra million dollars at their disposal could be pretty helpful. While some teams make it a point to keep plenty of cap space freed up year after year, other teams have a tendency to cut things close. For those teams, this news will be welcomed.

Spotrac, for instance, offers a look at each team's cap situation.

It also means that a veteran player or two who may have been cut due to cap reasons may not be given the hook by teams, at least not yet, as organizations try to calibrate their payroll with the new cap.

On the other hand, agents and their clients may try to use the expanded cap to earn slightly bigger deals than they might have requested in years past, knowing teams can squeeze those contracts under the cap.

Ultimately, the increase in the cap seems unlikely to change anything all that severely. But as teams and players do, they'll look to capitalize on this news in whatever manner possible.