5 biggest salary cap concerns heading into NFL pre-season
The NFL salary cap is a unique measure to ensure fair competition among all 32 teams in the league. The fact that breaches carry an actual punishment is envied across other sports.
Ahead of the 2022 NFL season, there are a number of teams that are either in immediate NFL salary cap trouble or will be struggling in a year due to player contracts.
It can be difficult for general managers, when handing out contract extensions, knowing that they could become millstones around a franchise’s neck in just two years.
High NFL salary cap hits can be problematic obstacles to trades and other roster moves, but by June and pre-season, you’d hope most teams would have their major issues sorted.
That isn’t true in a small number of cases in 2022.
What are the 5 biggest NFL salary cap concerns right now?
#1 - Jimmy Garoppolo: $26.9 million cap hit (San Francisco 49ers)
The San Francisco 49ers can’t win a Super Bowl with Jimmy Garoppolo as their starting quarterback. He’s talented but makes too many mistakes and is, perhaps, too conservative in the playoffs.
He doesn’t have that sprinkling of stardust that a quarterback needs to be able to lead a team at the business end of the season, the kind of stardust that Kyle Shanahan hopes Trey Lance possesses. This is why he gave so much up to trade up and draft him in 2021.
After another disappointing year with injuries and falling just short in the playoffs, the 49ers will turn to Lance in 2022. He will be their starter. However, this will leave them with the highest paid QB backup in NFL history.
Garoppolo’s cap-hit in 2022 is $26.9 million, and this is proving to be a huge obstacle in trade talks with other NFL teams.
John Lynch made clear releasing Jimmy G wasn’t an option, even if it would have cleared a lot of his cap hit, and now time is running against the Santa Clara franchise.
Any team that would hope to acquire Garoppolo ahead of the 2022 season would be required to pay $25.5 million of that salary.
So, while trading him would be a great move for the Niners, it’s easy to see why teams would have reservations, especially given the fact he isn’t going to be able to take a team to the next level in the playoffs.
The #49ers are still planning on trading QB Jimmy Garoppolo before Week 1 👀
According to @AlbertBreer, both the 9ers and Jimmy are willing to be flexible. This includes potentially renegotiating the final year on his contract to get a deal done.
Where do you think he goes? 🤔 https://t.co/Z0tiHjkteD
#2 - Baker Mayfield: $18.9 million cap hit (Cleveland Browns)
In an almost carbon copy of the Garoppolo situation, Baker Mayfield is an $18.9 million drain on the Cleveland Browns’ salary cap, and it is unlikely he will ever play for them again.
It's a relationship that has gone sour in a way that the one between the 49ers and Garoppolo hasn’t. Mayfield has felt disrespected by the Browns, but his problem is that teams across the NFL don’t want to trade for his contract.
The Browns have a relatively good amount of cap space, but that will decrease next year with contract renewals coming up.
They need to get rid of Mayfield this offseason in order to ease that future burden, but again, teams aren’t looking to trade for such a cap-hit that comes with a player that isn’t considered elite.
Mayfield led the Browns to their first NFL playoff victory this millennium, yet he couldn’t go any further. There are teams that would welcome that level of success, but aren’t wiling to pay that high a price to get it.