The NFL salary cap will be formally announced in early March, shortly before the start of the 2016 league year, and the number keeps climbing. A week ago NFL Network projected it as high as $155 million, but now that number could climb up near $157 million.
Late last week, an arbitrator ruled in favor of the NFLPA over a grievance related to revenue over the last three years. The arbitrator ruled the NFL improperly categorized upwards of $120 million as revenue that did not need to be included in the player pool. An NFL spokesperson claimed it was a "technical accounting issue under the CBA, involving the funding of stadium construction and renovation projects." The NFLPA said the NFL "created an exemption out of a fiction, and they got caught."
The arbitrator ruled it must immediately be placed back in the player pool. The formula for the player's side of the money means approximately $50 million gets added into the overall player-side revenue, thus raising the cap around $1.5 million, give or take.
A year ago, the NFL and NFLPA announced the salary cap on March 2, which was the same day as the deadline for franchise and transition tags. If that holds up this year, that means we will learn the final cap number on March 1. In the meantime, Jason Hurley has updated the 2016 cap page. Based on the latest projections, if the cap is at $157 million, the San Francisco 49ers are looking at $59,600,518 in cap space next month.