As of 4 p.m. Eastern on Wednesday,2019 NFL league year begins and so does the counting of teams’ top 51 contracts on their roster for the salary cap.
Only the top 51 cap numbers on a team, including unsigned franchise, transition, restricted free agent and exclusive rights tenders, count against the salary cap during the offseason. All teams must be under the salary cap prior to the beginning of the new league year.
For the Arizona Cardinals, the start of the new league year also means left tackle D.J. Humphries’ fifth-year option becomes fully guaranteed at $9.625 million.
This is a make or break year for the former 2015 first-round draft pick out of Florida. Humphries has struggled to stay on the field during his time in the NFL as he has missed 21 of 48 possible games due to injury.
If Humphries can stay healthy and prove his worth, he stands to see a significant pay raise in 2020 as a highly-coveted left tackle.
If he cannot, it will likely be his final season as an Arizona Cardinal, and become yet another failed offensive line prospect since Steve Keim took the GM reigns in 2013.
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