2015 NFL salary cap expected to be between $140 and $143 million

According to a report from ESPN Insider Adam Schefter, the NFL's salary cap is expected to move up once again. Schefter reports that the league "notified teams today that it expects this year's salary cap to be between $140 and $143 million, at least $1.5M higher than projected." This is a significant increase from last year's figure of ~$130 million.

What this means for the Eagles is that their cap space goes up a little bit. Before this announcement, Philadelphia was projected to enter the new league year with the 16th most cap space at about $19 million, per OverTheCap.com. Now that figure should be at least $20.5 million.

These extra funds could come in handy when the team is trying to keep their own free agents, such as Jeremy Maclin, in Philadelphia. The Eagles will also look to extend some of their own players currently under contract as well as sign free agents on the open market.

There are a number of veteran players the Eagles can cut as salary cap casualties in order to free up space. For example, the Eagles could save a total of $26 million by releasing Trent Cole ($8.43M), Cary Williams ($6.5), DeMeco Ryans ($6.9M), and James Casey ($4M) while only suffering a combined $4 million in dead money. Some players may be willing to restructure their deals (which would push money owed into future years) or take pay cuts (perhaps Cole?). Either way, there will be opportunities to create more cap room if needed.

It will be interesting to see what impact this cap increase has around the league. It's possible that this raise allows more teams to keep their own pending free agents. If so, that could mean a smaller free agent market. As far as Eagles fans are concerned, they can be happy knowing the team will have money to spend.