NFL Sets 2021 Salary Cap at $182.5 Million

The Saints have known all along that they had work to do for the 2021 salary cap, but finally have a hard figure to work with.

After a long period of waiting, the NFL has finally announced the salary cap figure for 2021. Per multiple reports, the concrete number has been set at $182.5 million, which is a large drop from 2020's $198.2 million. Of course, a lot of factors played into this because of how COVID-19 impacted the league last season. Fan attendance was almost non-existent, among all the other challenges that were brought on. Still, the league was able to get all their games played and such.

Naturally, New Orleans has some work to do, despite already making some big moves. Be sure to check out our salary cap slasher tracker. As of right now, they have about $57 million to trim to break even. This can be done with several restructures and other moves, but the Saints will likely have to make some big decisions on their veterans like Emmanuel Sanders, Malcom Brown, Kwon Alexander, and Janoris Jenkins. Alexander and Sanders were among those players being discussed in trade circles, according to SI's Albert Breer.

One other thing to point out is that the Saints actually had some carryover cap from last year, which really makes them have a little more than the original figure, but not a ton. However, that extra space in Mickey Loomis terms means a lot.