“I was smiling.”

That’s what Bills general manager Brandon Beane (above) said his reaction was when he saw the NFL’s salary cap number for the 2024 season. The cap’s record jump of $30.4 million up to $255.4 million has dominated the talk so far this week in Indianapolis, where team executives are gathering for the annual NFL Scouting Combine. Teams had been anticipating a cap number of at least $5 million to $10 million lower, but the larger-than-expected increase came from more media revenue and deferred payments from the COVID-19 pandemic. “It saves you,” Beane added during an interview on PFT Live. “Maybe it’s one less guy you’ve got to release or restructure.”

Since the NFL operates under a hard cap—every team has the same amount of money to spend—the dollars and cents of it all aren’t typically as interesting as they can be in sports like baseball and basketball, which allow for more flexibility through owners’ willingness to pay a luxury tax. 

Deep-pocketed NFL owners can’t go all in as Steve Cohen did with the New York Mets last season, ultimately spending a record $374.7 million on the 2023 roster (that missed the playoffs), including a $100.78 million luxury tax bill. But they also don’t have to worry about balancing player talent with their bottom line, like Golden State Warriors owner Joe Lacob said is on tap this upcoming offseason.

So, that’s why the $972.8 million in combined extra 2024 NFL cap space is turning everybody into accountants. “Now maybe we can do more or plan more for the future,” Broncos GM George Paton said. “So it just provides us and really all the teams with more flexibility moving forward.” Even official team websites are leaning into the spike: “How the increased salary cap affects Saquon Barkley,” an article’s headline on the Giants’ website reads.

The combine, which began on Thursday, will conclude on Sunday. The official league year begins March 13, but the negotiating period with soon-to-be free agents begins March 11, and teams have already been allowed to assign franchise tags. So, with the salary-cap-crunching season set to be slightly less harsh this spring, who will be “saved” and who will still be looking for their next payday?

Electronic Arts is laying off 5% of its workforce, amounting to about 670 people, further showcasing just how difficult the once-thriving video game business has become. 

The staff reduction is just one part of several moves by EA to trim costs, with the company also paring back on some real estate holdings and “moving away from development of future licensed IP that we do not believe will be successful in our changing industry,” CEO Andrew Wilson said in a memo to staff. 

The shifts are happening as EA continues a multiyear transition from simply a producer of physical video game discs to a live digital services business. To that end, Wilson also referenced “an accelerating industry transformation where player needs and motivations have changed significantly.” 

The company has made some meaningful progress on this transition, and EA stock has risen by about 25% over the last year. But the road ahead remains choppy in what remains a highly saturated gaming market. The overall restructuring is projected to cost between $125 million and $165 million, according to a company filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, including $40 million to $55 million in employee-related costs such as severance. The latest round of cuts follows a slightly larger batch of layoffs by EA in early 2023. 

‘Doubling Down’ on Sports

Wilson identified sports as a key area where the more streamlined version of EA intends to “double down on our biggest opportunities.” But there, too, lie several trip-wires for the company.

After years of anticipation, EA intends to release a revived version of its college football game franchise this summer. But the $600 per-player compensation offer to athletes has sparked accusations of being below industry standards for the still-emerging name, image, and likeness era—perhaps limiting the level of intellectual property the game will ultimately feature. 

The company’s flagship Madden NFL remains one of the industry’s leading sellers. But more than 30 years of annual releases has sparked complaints of the game growing creatively stale. EA also made a bold move nearly two years ago to separate from FIFA and produce its own soccer game, EA Sports FC. Reviews of that title were solid, and early consumer reception was strong, but the company is still attempting to build up that franchise in a video game business that remains in a post-pandemic slump.

To that end, EA’s ongoing issues are also thematically similar to a run of layoffs of other video game companies including Sony, Microsoft, and Tencent’s Riot Games.