Two years ago the NFL salary cap jumped $10 million up to $133 million. Last year it rose to $143 million. And in 2016, the salary cap is expected to rise to a whopping $155 million, according to NFL Network's Rand Getlin. That's an increase of about $12 million for the 2016 season.
I'm told the NFL's salary cap is expected to jump to at least $155M this year. Nearly $12M more than last year's ($143.28M).
— Rand Getlin (@Rand_Getlin) February 15, 2016
How significant is $12 million? That's the price of a top NFL cornerback (like Sean Smith). So, yeah, pretty important.
I want to say this is good news for the Chiefs who need to sign a number of their own high priced free agents -- it is good news to have more money than less money -- but it's all proportional. This now means that other teams have more salary cap space to dedicate to wooing the Chiefs free agents away.
Where the Chiefs do have the advantage is this period right now until March 9 when the Chiefs have exclusive negotiating rights with their own free agents (save the "legal tampering" period of March 7-9). KC has to capitalize on this time period because it's difficult to bring a player back after he hits free agency and sees all those teams out there with cash to spend.