Pro Football Talk's Mike Florio recently reported that, according to a league source, the NFL and NFLPA are scrambling to increase the 2012 salary cap numbers before the new league year starts on March 13. According to Florio, the league and NFLPA are attempting to do this for two reasons.
The problem arises from two realities. Under the new CBA, players receive a finite number (47 percent of specifically defined revenues) to cover both salaries and benefits. But the costs of the benefits have increased, driving more of the allocation away from salaries.
And so, for roughly a week, the NFLPA has been trying to re-do the numbers in order to trim back the benefit costs and in turn drive up the salary cap.
Both the league and the union are working together on this. According to Florio, the league is willing to work with the union to avoid letting the players think they got a raw deal by signing the new CBA and the union, and most teams wouldn't mind having a little extra scratch to throw around.
This is the reason why we haven't heard an exact number that the Bengals have to spend. We've heard that they have something around $60 million to throw around but we haven't heard an exact number. Depending on what the league and the union decide to do, we should hear an exact number within the next 10 days.
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