NFLPA preparing its own salary cap projection

The union is not happy with the NFL's cap number, believing the league is coming in low.

The National Football League is projecting the 2015 salary cap to be between $138.6 million and $141.8 million. The NFL Players Association believes that number is low, and will be issuing its own salary cap figure, according to Tom Pelissero of USA Today.

The cap has been rising steadily in recent years, going up from $123 million in 2013 to $133 million last year. The cap is figured by how much revenue the NFL brings in, and with media deals larger and more expansive than ever, the players want their piece of the pie. When the last collective bargaining agreement was signed, the players agreed to get 48 percent of revenues.

On Thursday, Union president DeMaurice Smith talked to the press, focusing on getting a correct number before teams begin to budget and potentially depress the market.

"The last few years, you have seen various stories reported by some of you in the room … where you have reported things about the salary cap from ownership that has turned out to not be true," Smith said in the media conference.

"We believe that that not only misrepresents the economic reality of how the salary cap works, but our concern is that those inaccurate projections may have a negative consequence on some players who are trying to negotiate new contracts."

The final number will be figured in February when the league and union get together for an audit. A few weeks later, the new league year will start with free agency beginning on March 10.

Another point of contention for Smith was teams not spending to the 89 percent threshold of the cap. The violators include the Oakland Raiders, Cleveland Browns, Houston Texans, Pittsburgh Steelers, New York Jets, New Orleans Saints, Jacksonville Jaguars, New York Giants, New England Patriots and Washington. However, league-wide spending was significantly above the 99.64 percent minimum, according to union numbers. If the number came in below 95 percent, the union would get the excess money and disperse it to the players.

"Let's be blunt: it's not overly titillating," Smith told USA TODAY Sports. "But the reason why I think it's interesting to look at those 10 teams that were under the 89 percent -- and there were a couple that were hovering around the 80 percent – (is) they're going to be in a situation where hypothetically, if the cap continues to rise as we expect, on the back end of this deal, they're got to spend 110 and 120 percent of a salary cap that's 20 million dollars higher than it was three years ago. To that, I say, 'Fantastic.'"

Smith said he will aim to be accurate with the cap projections, hoping to lock down a reasonable number for teams to use as a budget guide.

"Do we expect (the union projections) to be 100 percent accurate? We'll do our best," Smith said. "We'll provide you with the guidelines and the criteria of how we reached that number. But indeed, we do believe that that is yet one way that we can serve the interest of our players."

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