METAIRIE, La. -- If the New Orleans Saints have taught us anything over the past decade, it’s that the salary cap is never as daunting as it seems.
General manager Mickey Loomis and vice president of football administration Khai Harley have become masters of pushing cap costs into future years -- a practice that has worked out for them while the NFL’s cap has continued to soar by more than $10 million per year in the past seven years.
The 2020 salary cap is $198.2 million per team. But because of lost revenues from the coronavirus pandemic, the NFL's 2021 cap could plummet to as low as $175 million per team -- which means New Orleans might now be facing the most difficult challenge of any team in the league.