Still no need to be at the salary floor. You won't go bankrupt as long as you stay a little bit above the line and make some profit every week. With that you should be able to have at least 400-500k salaries which is more than enough to get some wins. Maybe not competing for the playoff spots but at least have a competitive team. You went all in last season so it's only natural that after that you have to re-group a while.
And this change didn't affect you at all. You would've been in tier 1 with the old system as well.