The 2015 NFL season still has five weeks plus the playoffs to go, but for San Francisco 49ers fans, and plenty of other fans, the look to 2016 and beyond is already underway. This qualifies as pertinent information related to the future. Jason Cole is reporting the NFL has told GMs and cap personnel that the 2016 salary cap is expected to fall between $147 million and $155 million. Albert Breer is reporting the higher end number is $153 million. This year's cap was set at $143,280,000.
In case you were not aware, Jason Hurley is tracking the 49ers 2016 salary obligations at this page. He updates that whenever he gets new information, so make sure and bookmark. We'll have articles for notable stories, but little adjustments happen as well, and he'll continue updating the time stamp on the page with each update.
Jason has been projecting a $153 million salary cap, and with that, he currently has the 49ers with $42,786,084 in cap space. Of course, the top two cap hits on his 2016 spreadsheet belong to Colin Kaepernick and Ahmad Brooks. Kaepernick is almost assuredly gone after this season, and Brooks could be not far behind depending on how far this re-building process goes. Cutting Kaepernick would clear $8.5 million, or $13.4 million if given a June 1 designation (released by April 1, but cap savings hit the books on June 1). Cutting Brooks would clear $6.5 million, or $7.35 million if given a June 1 designation.
That's a whole lot of coin potentially available as the 49ers figure out whatever will be the next step in this rebuilding process. It could make for a fascinating offseason to see what the 49ers do with this space.