Atlanta Falcons 2014 Salary Cap Breakdown

Mandatory Credit: Kevin Liles-USA TODAY Sports

The salary cap rules all in the NFL today. It creates the ultimate in efficient markets, and what separates the good teams from the great ones is their ability to get the most out of every cap dollar they have to spend.

So, where do the Falcons sit with the all-important spending limit? In a short answer, pretty good and getting better. They have a good amount of money to spend before next season, but they still have a few contracts that are weighing them down.

Atlanta took a step in the right direction recently when they let Stephen Nicholas and Asante Samuel go. Both of those moves were directly related to the salary cap. The players still had some value to give the team on the field, but that value didn’t match what they were going to cost against the cap.

And that’s what it’s all about in the league today. Your value isn’t just what you can produce on the field, it’s how much that production costs the team against the cap.

This offseason is going to be an important one for the Falcons where it comes to the long-term health of the salary cap. They have money to spend, and needs to fill, in free agency. But, they need to make sure they spend that money wisely.

So, let’s take a look at where the Falcons sit now in the cap so we can have a better idea of the kind of moves they need to make in the months to come.