I've heard this argument throughout the day today about "Well, you have to consider with the cap going up that this equals the contract of Player X".
In a vacuum, yes, salary needs to measured as a percentage of the cap. But what people are failing to comprehend is that the salary boom was projected over a year ago. Meaning, the contracts players signed last year were signed knowing the Cap was going to exceed 90M this year and about 108M next year.
However, this year's FA can only point to the cap going from 94M to 110M next year, but then it flattens in the 112-115M range.
You cant say "Well, the cap went up by 33%, so contracts should as well". The cap is only going up 17% next year and then another 5% after that. That is the difference from last year... You cant overpay now with the assumption of a continued boom