Assessing the Cap

[Luvnit2]

As of today, 13 of the 32 teams do not have the cap space to sign their rookies. Why is that significant? Teams will have to either cut, trade or restructure players contracts? Or they will have to cut/trade players at some point. If these teams sign anyone more than 1.2 million a year, their cap rises so they have more work to do. There are several other teams with very little cap space after they sign their rookies.

This gives teams like the Bengals a competitive advantage (supply and demand) as they target additional free agents. The Bengals may wait now until after the draft to sign FA's as well anticipating good vets being cut due to cap issues.

I see a lot of teams doing more cap gymnastics (pushing cap hits from 2022 to 2023 and beyond) as free agency continues and after the draft.