Fooch's Update: Maiocco is reporting the 49ers have $11 million in cap space based on their Top 51 plus carry-over credit.
The 2014 NFL salary cap will not be officially known until the start of the new league year next month, but we are getting projections that would seem to bode well for the 49ers (and all teams). The early projections had the salary cap likely to come in at $126.3 million. Our man Jason Hurley thought it could go as high as $128 million. Well, it might be even better news than that!
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
I don't know if it's the new money from selling half of Thursday Night Football to CBS, but we'll take the extra cap space!
I'm waiting for some updated figures from Jason, but in the meantime, we can use Over The Cap's numbers to start clearing up where the 49ers stand. In their last update on February 17, OTC had the 49ers sitting with an estimated $5,534,011 in cap space. That was based on a cap of $126.3 million. If we're going to see the cap boosted to $130 million, that would mean the 49ers could have an estimated $9.2 million in cap space.
While this does mean the 49ers have more money to spend, I wonder if agents will use this new information against teams in negotiations. Everybody understands the issues with working around the cap, but when it turns out more money is available, I imagine there will be agents who will say, "more pie to be had, we want a bigger piece." I don't actually see anything wrong with that given the need to look out for yourself, but it could add an additional dynamic to negotiations.