The 2014 NFL Salary Cap is expected to increase to roughly $130 Mil according to ESPN reporter Adam Schefter. This is a much larger increase than the $126.3 estimate that was being reported in December. This would be a 5.69% increase from last year’s salary cap of $123 Mil.

If this is indeed true, the Steelers would only need to trim down roughly $9 Mil in cap space to be in compliance by the March 11th deadline. $6.25 Mil of that is easily cleared by the release of OT Levi Brown. So, getting under the cap, while not terribly difficult for the team to do before, is obviously much easier now.

Think about the list of Steelers free agents. Now think about the impact that an extra $3.7 Mil has on that list.