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The NFL saw a somewhat surprising report today from one of the media's so-called insiders. ESPN's Adam Schefter tweeted out this morning that the league will be raising the salary cap more than expected for the 2014 season.
Most projections were expecting the cap to sit at approximately $126.3 million, which would have been an increase from last year's $123 million cap. However, Schefter's sources indicate that the increase from last year will be more substantial:
NFL's salary cap now projected to rise to about $130 million, up 5 percent from $123 million last year, per league sources. More $ for all.
— Adam Schefter (@AdamSchefter) February 20, 2014
If this is indeed the case, the bigger increase in the cap would allow teams additional financial flexibility this seasonand would give them all an extra $3.7 million in cap room compared to the cap number that was expected previously.
For the Packers, this would increase their available cap space value to about $32.2 million, before the added impact of the team's 2014 rookie class. We broke it down here, using estimates from Overthecap.com:
| Value | Amount |
| Projected Salary Cap | $130,000,000 |
| Top 51 Contracts | ($104,945,045) |
| Dead Money | ($2,677,484) |
| 2013 Cap Carryover | $9,820,459 |
| 2014 Cap Space | $32,197,930 |
With the rookie class projected to add $1.875 million against the cap, that means the team will have $30.3 million of space to work with this offseason. That added space from the larger-than-expected cap increase should indeed allow them to adjust their contract offer to Sam Shields, B.J. Raji, or other free agents, as well as give them more flexibility to extend the contracts of Jordy Nelson and Randall Cobb.