The NFL confirmed reports from Saturday about the salary cap number by officially announcing it on Sunday. The salary cap for 2012 is $120.6 million and will go into effect at 4 p.m. on Tuesday when the new league year begins. Teams must be below the cap by that time, meaning the Detroit Lions have some work to do based on this report from Dave Birkett:

The NFL announced today that the cap for 2012 will be $120.6 million, a slight bump in last year’s cap ($120.375 million) but far short of the Lions’ current cap commitments. As of Friday, the Lions were a projected $11.55 million over the cap, said a person who analyzes contracts across the league.

The Lions' projected number included Cliff Avril's franchise tender, which is officially worth $10.605 million.

As other teams have been doing lately, the Lions will have to cut some players and/or restructure some contracts in order to become cap compliant. It will certainly be interesting to see what they do in order to get below the cap.