Should the NFL Cap Salaries to Address Market Inflation for Players?

The NFL prides itself on being the premier sports league of the United States while aligning with “American” values, however a salary cap directly infringes upon one of the esteemed US values of free-market capitalism. The cap is in place to purely protect the owners, and what ends up happening is the owners break ranks amongst themselves and they create “outside” deals for the players to take less money in salary (look at Mahomes acquiring ownership in the KC Royals the same time he did his deal). There already is a yearly salary cap for the entire team, caping individual players would be absurd. Also, the players already effectively have a cap placed on their contract potential the moment they come into the league, with the owners able to keep first round draft picks after selecting a 5th year option which further disadvantages the player. The players have short average careers, very few make it to another contract, yet fewer still get to set the market for their position.