Clayton: This week’s owners meetings showed the NFL is back to normal

The NFL held a virtual owners meeting this week. The biggest news to emerge was how the league is getting back to normal.

That has to be great news for the Broncos. Though they haven’t been totally approved to have full stadiums, you know that will be approved.

The league said 30 of the 32 teams have been cleared for full stadiums during the 2021 season. The Broncos and the Colts are the only two awaiting approval. That will happen.

The other piece of good news is that is all 32 teams can have fans watch training camp practices. All 32 teams have been given the go-ahead for that, as well. Broncos fan love seeing the team in camp.

The other big news is that the 2022 salary cap could go to a max of $208.2 million. No one knows the exact number. That has to be negotiated after the season. But the possibility of a big jump from the current $182.5 million is huge. The eight percent decrease from last year’s $198.2 million cap caused plenty of $10 million a year players to be cut, traded or forced to take pay cuts this offseason.

There is no doubt the Broncos would benefit from a big cap jump. They currently have a little over $20 million of cap room this year. If the cap goes up to $208.2, they would have over $50 million of cap room in 2022.

The only problem for all teams is that much of a jump will cause salaries to skyrocket. COVID-19 caused the biggest drop in revenue in NFL history. Were it not for the salary cap floor of $182.5, this year’s salary cap would have been $166 million. No one could operate a team under that number.

How did they make it work? The players delayed $17 million a team of benefit payments. Those will be reimbursed in 2023.

Full stadiums. Fans at training camp. An increasing salary cap. The NFL is getting back to normal.