During their quarterly meeting today, league owners and GM’s were informed that the 2014 NFL salary cap was tentatively projected to increase to $126.3 Mil, roughly a $3.3 Mil increase from 2013. This is welcome news as the Steelers 2014 salary cap situation is precarious, and any increase to the maximum salary cap is most welcome. It was widely believed that the 2014 NFL salary cap was not going to increase much or at all from the 2013 salary cap number. The final number will be set in February 2014.

The Steelers currently have 42 players under contract for 2014, and are already over the projected salary cap for a total of ~$131 Mil. That’s not including dead money which totals just over $4.5 Mil, most of which is from Willie Colon. However, Levi Brown’s contract was virtually risk free, and cutting him will roughly yield an easy $6.25 Mil savings.

The Steelers will be able to carry over their 2013 salary cap surplus which is approximately $1.4 Mil at the time of this writing. There will be extensions, restructures, cuts, and some tough choices ahead, but I don’t believe the team will be having the mass blood letting that some do. Omar Khan, Samir Suleiman, and company will have to work their magic this year turning dimes into dollars.