Players due to become free agents haven’t been doing new deals, for a variety of reasons. Some believe that, among other things, players and their agents think the salary cap could spike in 2013.
It won’t.
Jason Cole of Yahoo! Sports reports that the NFLPA expects the team-by-team spending limit to increase only by $400,000 per team, from $120.6 million to $121 million. It would be, as Cole points out, the smallest increase in the two-decade history of the cap.
Last year, the cap actually would have dropped, but for some number crunching that included an agreement from the union to allow the NFL to crunch the Redskins and Cowboys for a total of $46 million in cap space.
So for players who are considering whether to take the bird in the hand, it’s important to keep in mind that the bush won’t be growing as much as they may have thought.
It’s also important to remember that the tax rate for the highest earners likely will go up 4.6 percent in 2013, which means that a $10 million signing bonus will result in another $460,000 going to an uncle who usually gets whatever he wants.
