NFL Salary Cap For 2021 Season Could Remain A Mystery Until New League Year Begins

The COVID-19 pandemic has created several issues for the NFL. One of those issues is the salary cap, and how the capped revenue has affected the number for 2021.

This is something that is going to force teams to make tough decisions, but we don't even know what that final number looks like -- at least not yet. We know that it won't fall below $175 million, but it's going to be significantly lower than the $198.2 million from 2020.

What makes it an even bigger issue is the timeline for which teams will know. According to Ben Fischer of Sports Business Journal, Chiefs owner Clark Hunt says the salary cap for next season won't be known anytime soon.

“There are so many uncertainties as we look at the 2021 season, which of course is now seven or eight months away, that answering those questions is very challenging,” Hunt said, via Yahoo Sports. “It’s going to be difficult to set the cap this year because we don’t know as many of the answers to those questions as we’d like. But that’ll be a collaborative process that happens with the union over the next two or three months. Certainly from a team perspective, we all hope to have something higher than the floor of $175 million, but we just don’t know the answer at this point.”

You have to think teams such as the New Orleans Saints are sweating this out. They're already tens of millions over the salary cap, but it checking in closer to $175 million would create even more of a roster turnover than expected.

Now imagine having to wait until right before the start of the new league year to know what you'll need to cut in order to be in compliance. Hunt added that the salary cap could get set "hours before the start of the new league year."

That's significant.

Follow Clint Lamb on Twitter @ClintRLamb.