Nice goal post move. There will always be teams looking to cut dollars, even in good times. The temptation will always be bigger for teams who look at things and know they can't compete. But the league as a whole has seen a steady increase in payrolls. until the destruction of a large piece of the revenue flow. An increase of $650 million for the same basic amount of players is nearly a million dollars per player more on average. The top players in the league aren't making $50 million a year to explain that extra $20+ million per team going to JUST them.
Look at it this way. IN 2014 one team had a payroll of over $200 million. 6 came in over $150 million. 16 were over $100 million.
In 2019 that was 3 teams >$200m, 10 > $150m, and 23 over $100 million.
More teams were spending more money. Clearly.